The Podcast for Pet Photographers

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S11E01 | The marketing campaign to kickstart 2022
Podcast, Interviews, Season 11 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 11 Kirstie McConnell

S11E01 | The marketing campaign to kickstart 2022

Most photographers I know are so busy toward the end of the year that their marketing gets completely neglected and then in the new year, their calendars are empty.

Hopefully you have a 12 month marketing calendar in place to avoid that, but if not, fear not- I’ve got you..!

This episode today is to share my favourite campaign with you to ensure that you can kick off 2022 with bookings in the diary.

I’m talking about a Pet of the Year Competition.

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S10E12 | Five Aha! Moments from 2021 with Caitlin & Kirstie (Must Listen Episode)
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

S10E12 | Five Aha! Moments from 2021 with Caitlin & Kirstie (Must Listen Episode)

Oh my goodness, it is ALMOST DECEMBER?! Where did 2021 go? To celebrate our annual Black Friday Super Sale, Kirstie and Caitlin took a look back through the 2021 Podcast Archives to pick out our personal top five AHA! moments.

If you missed any of these episodes along the way, consider this your sign to go back and have a listen. Or just tune into this episode and we’ll sum up the best bits for you!

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S10E11 | Sarah Stangl Raised Her Swiss Dog Photography Prices by 75% - and Business Boomed!
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S10E10 | Four Ways to Boost Your Business with Personal Projects
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S10E09 | Improve your images with better composition
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S10E08 | Getting started with offering professional printing and products as a pet photographer with Atkins Photo Lab
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S10E07 | Blogging Isn’t Dead with Mikaela Vargas of Pet Marketing Unleashed
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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!

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S10E06 | Managing client data, job statuses and to-do lists with a CRM
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S10E05 | Personal Branding Photoshoots for Small Pet Businesses with Meg McMillan
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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!

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S10E04 | Changing up your session offerings to suit you better with Angela Schneider
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S10E03 | Rewiring Your Money Mindset for Sales Success with Johl Dunn
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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!

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S10E02 | The Judges Panel: A Deepdive Discussion into the International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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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
Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 10 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S9E11 | RESULTS: 2021 International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards
Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S9E10 | Optimising your Instagram Account for more clients
Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell

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!

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S9E09 | The Blogging Hack (the how and why you should combine your proof galleries and client blog posts)
Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell

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).

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S9E08 | How to Use the Storybrand Website Framework in your Pet Photography Business with Ryan Toth
Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell

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.

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S9E06 | Pitching, Publicity and PR for Pet Photographers with Zoe Hiljemark
Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell

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!

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S9E05 | Dog Brand Ambassadors, Book Launches and Maternity Leave - GoalTrackers Season 9
Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell Podcast, Interviews, Season 9 Kirstie McConnell

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

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