The Podcast for Pet Photographers
Listen free below, or join the Club for access to extended episodes
S10E11 | Sarah Stangl Raised Her Swiss Dog Photography Prices by 75% - and Business Boomed!
When Sarah Stangl was faced with the unnerving realisation that her pet photography side hustle was not profitable enough to become her full-time job, she knew she’d have to either raise her prices, or quit altogether. She took the leap, bumped her prices by significant 75% and focused on creating incredible hiking dog photo experiences in the Swiss Alps. Tune into our in depth interview with Sarah Stangl of Abenteuerhunde to find out all about her European adventure dog photography business.
S10E10 | Four Ways to Boost Your Business with Personal Projects
Whether you're just starting out in the world of professional pet photography, or you're a seasoned pro, a familiar trap that many of us can fall into is creating photography for our clients and not ourselves.
Creating a personal photography project will not only reignite your passion for your craft, but it can also seriously boost your business.
Tune into this week’s episode to learn about four ways personal projects have helped increase my client base, revenue and marketing strategies.
S10E09 | Improve your images with better composition
Have you ever looked at your image and thought "something is just not quite right?" but you can't put your finger on what's making you uncomfortable? It could be one of many things; colour temperature, focus, the dogs expression, to name a few.
Sometimes all we need is to step back to the fundamentals of photography and look at them as individual aspects. In today's members only episode, Craig and Charlotte do just that as they review the composition of 10 submitted images.
Craig and Charlotte are the co-founders of Unleashed Education. Between them they have over 30 years of photography experience.
S10E08 | Getting started with offering professional printing and products as a pet photographer with Atkins Photo Lab
Making the transition from an all-inclusive, digital only photographer, to offering products can be overwhelming. Firstly, there are so many suppliers, and each of them have so many unique products to choose from! And even once you choose products- how do you price them?! Then there is the file handling and the preparing images for print. Is it all worth it?
Paul and Kate of Atkins Pro Lab in Adelaide Australia joined me in this episode to answer all your questions, and to reassure you that it doesn’t have to be complicated.
S10E07 | Blogging Isn’t Dead with Mikaela Vargas of Pet Marketing Unleashed
So - be honest with us. Are you up to date with your blogging? Or are you like so many of your fellow photographers, so busy working on all the other areas of your business that blogging tends to fall by the wayside. Is blogging even still a thing these days, anyway?!
Um yes, yes it is. Tune into our interview with Mikaela Vargas from Pet Marketing Unleashed to learn how you can confidently and efficiently produce blog posts that not only attract your dream clients, but also increase your web traffic and inquiries. We’ve got news for you - blogging is not dead!
S10E06 | Managing client data, job statuses and to-do lists with a CRM
Managing a business can be stressful. You have a thousand and one hats to wear, and with that, means a never ending to-do list. As your business grows, so does that to-do list, but you don’t need to have an office full of sticky notes and an excel file with client details. You can have all those things in a CRM (client relationship management software, and if you use a photographers specific CRM like Studio Ninja, you can also keep contracts, quotes, invoices and so much more in there too. Better yet, Studio Ninja comes with sample templates of all of things and more!
In today’s interview, Kirstie interviewed the co-founder of Studio Ninja to learn what makes them different, how they help you, and what exactly these CRM’s can do for you.
Oh and if you’re ready to make the switch- they offer a free migration service )yep, even from sticky notes!) and with our coupon, you’ll save 50% for the first twelve months.
S10E05 | Personal Branding Photoshoots for Small Pet Businesses with Meg McMillan
If you’re a pet photographer who works with - or would like to work with - pet businesses then you’ve likely already realised that everything you already know about working with private clients really isn’t applicable when you move to the B2B space. Throw into the mix that most of the commercial photography education out there doesn’t apply when dealing with small, local or boutique pet businesses and you might find yourself totally lost about how to best serve these clients. We’re talking your local groomer, doggy day care, pet bakery - all businesses who could potentially bring in a fantastic new income stream - if only you knew how to serve them best.
That’s why we invited Personal Branding photographer Meg McMillan of Meg Marie Photography onto the show today. Meg is killing it in the world of small business and personal branding clients and today she shares how you can take that same approach and apply it to your pet photography business!
S10E04 | Changing up your session offerings to suit you better with Angela Schneider
Like most of us, Angela Schneider of Big White Dog Photography in Spokane, WA, offered “standard” pet portraits in her local park. With some downtime during Covid, she rebranded to a name that suits her, and then took a moment to think about what she really enjoys and her adventure sessions were born.
S10E03 | Rewiring Your Money Mindset for Sales Success with Johl Dunn
Every now and then we have a guest on the show who gives me the exact kick-up-the-bum I didn’t know I needed. Johl Dunn of JD Mindset Coaching is that guest! He was one of our most popular presenters at the Pet Photographers Conference earlier this year, so we just knew we had to get Johl back to the Pet Photographers Club to share more of his expert advice and actionable tips for rewiring your mindset. We were so caught up in the conversation with Johl that we ended up going DOUBLE overtime (oops, sorry Johl haha) - it’s a fascinating conversation and one you definitely don’t want to miss!
S10E02 | The Judges Panel: A Deepdive Discussion into the International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards
Don’t you wish you could be a fly on the wall watching the judging that goes on behind the scenes of the International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards? Well now you can be!
We brought together the five judges of the 2021 Awards: Alice Loder, Cat Race, Craig Turner-Bullock, Sara Glawe and Caitlin J. McColl to share their top tips for pet photographers entering awards AND a members-only bonus deepdive video into their “Judge's Choice” favourite images. It’s totally fascinating to hear the judges agree about what they loved about each image - and argue about what could be improved. A definite must-watch panel discussion for any pet photographers interested in learning more about what catches the eye of these leaders of our industry.
S10E01 | What to do when your mini sessions don't fill.. combining other skills with your pet photography and setting up a pet photography business with profit in mind
We kicked off Season 10 with a Goal Trackers call. Goal Trackers are a member perk- a way to get to know other pet photographers, discuss your current goals and get some feedback from others. This quarters I was joined by Ina, Angela and Suzy.
S9E11 | RESULTS: 2021 International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards
The annual Awards are an annual celebration of the artistry and skill of professional and emerging pet photographers from all around the globe. This year, more than 2500 pet portraits were submitted by pet photographers located in 52 countries. The top 100 shortlisted images were released first, followed by the Top 25, then the category winners and now, the overall International Pet Photographer of the Year, Veronika Šandorová from Slovakia.
S9E10 | Optimising your Instagram Account for more clients
Having thousands of Instagram followers is one thing- but having the right followers and then optimising your content to turn those followers into clients is a whole other project. Join Kirstie in this video episode as she shares her top nine tips for optimising your account- plus a special offer for an upcoming workshop at the end!
S9E09 | The Blogging Hack (the how and why you should combine your proof galleries and client blog posts)
Please tell me I’m not the only one who has always procrastinated writing my client blog posts! There seems to be a thousand other things to do in my business, so blogging inevitably gets pushed to the side and before I know it, it’s been months (years?!) since I last wrote a client session blog post. Which is really a shame because I know that these posts are a great resource to have on hand for enquiries AND an easy way to update and add new content to my website (you’re welcome SEO juice).
S9E08 | How to Use the Storybrand Website Framework in your Pet Photography Business with Ryan Toth
Have you heard of Storybrand? It’s a very popular and proven marketing strategy that helps businesses clarify their message and build a sales funnel into their website. In this 7-part framework, you cast your clients as the hero - rather than your website being all about YOU, your website tells a story that your client can relate to. Sounds intriguing, right? We interviewed website expert and certified Storybrand guide, Ryan Toth of Clearbrand to find out all about this powerful framework and how pet photographers can use it to improve their websites.
S9E07 | Creating Pre-Shoot Questionnaires to Skyrocket your Sales
Join The Pet Photographers Club co-host, Kirstie McConnell, for a free workshop to build a pre-shoot questionnaire that is actually useful AND easy for your clients in this replay of our live workshop, now available to Club members!
S9E06 | Pitching, Publicity and PR for Pet Photographers with Zoe Hiljemark
Tune into our interview with Zoe Hiljemark, a PR and Marketing expert who works exclusively with professional photographers. Her mission is to help photographers become ‘PR savvy’, gain visibility and grow a loyal audience - and she shares all her best tips in this episode. It’s time to get that head out of the sand and see how you can use PR strategies to grow your business!
S9E05 | Dog Brand Ambassadors, Book Launches and Maternity Leave - GoalTrackers Season 9
Today I was joined by Kelly Schulz of K Schulz Photography in Bloomington, Minnesota and Ina Jalil of Ina J Photography in Canberra for our season 9 Goal Trackers meeting.
Eavesdrop into our conversation about everything from book launches to doggy brand ambassadors and if you haven’t already, we’d love for YOU to share your Top Three Goals for the next three months over in the Mastermind Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/The.Pet.Photographers.Club
S9E04 | How to Add Digital Painting to Pet Photography Business with Lesley Davidson
Tune into this latest interview episode to find out everything you want to know about digital painting for pet photographers - whether it’s Lesley’s best tips for learning yourself, how you can hire a “ghost painter” if (like me) you’re not a digital painter and in the extended episode we brainstorm different ways that you could successful integrate this service into your existing business model.
S9E03 | Choosing Three Locations to Offer Your Clients (brought to you by nPhoto)
Are you an on-location pet photographer? In today’s special episode, with Pet Photographer of the Year awards sponsor nPhoto, we discussed the benefits of giving your clients just three set locations to pick from for their photoshoot. We recommend a park option, beach option and urban option - but of course, you could adjust these to suit your own environment. If you’re still leaving the location scouting up to your clients, this is a must-listen episode!