The Podcast for Pet Photographers
Listen free below, or join the Club for access to extended episodes
Update | What's new at The Pet Photographers Club
Like everything good in life.. we’ve grown! The podcast that Caitlin and I started in 2018 as a tiny passion project has since grown into so much more. The Pet Photographers Club is now a thriving community which hosts the awards, events, an active membership, delivers courses and more! With all this growth, we thought we better let you know what The Club is all about!
S12E08 | Inside Your Client’s Mind with Sam Jacobson of Ideaction Consulting
As a pet photographer and an animal lover, you’re painfully aware of the limited lifetime that we get to spend with our pets. We all wish that they could be around forever - and we all know they won’t be.
It’s often one of the most powerful reasons our clients hire us for a photoshoot - so how do we communicate it with sensitivity?
In today’s interview with Sam Jacobson of Ideaction Consulting and the Own Your Business Podcast, we dive into this and so many other questions about navigating buyer psychology for higher conversions. He’s an absolute expert in sales, pricing and communication, you definitely don’t want to miss this one!
S12E07 | Imposter Syndrome and Entering the 2022 Pet Photographer of the Year Awards
Imagine building up your pet photography business so that you had a luxury studio space with three employees, photographing 250 clients a year - and then closing it all down to roadtrip with your dog across the United States for three months of the year. Terrifying? Amazing? Our guest today swappe”
S12E06 | Pet Photography Roadtrips with Arica Dorff
Imagine building up your pet photography business so that you had a luxury studio space with three employees, photographing 250 clients a year - and then closing it all down to roadtrip with your dog across the United States for three months of the year. Terrifying? Amazing? Our guest today swapped her high-end studio for the travelling van life, and doubled her earnings with the transition. She’s built a successful business that supports her adventurous lifestyle - stay tuned for our interview with Arica Dorff as she shares all her secrets and tips for making pet photography roadtrips work.
S12E05 | Branding beyond the logo with Abby Grace Springmann
If the extent of your branding stops after logo, colours and font, you NEED to tune into today’s interview with Abby Grace Springmann. She is an expert brand photographer, speaker and educator and in this interview Abby Grace teaches us all about how to build a brand that is deeper than just the visuals - including the test to take to find out your superpower and how to distill your communication into 3 key messages.
S12E04 | The Challenge: Six Ideas to Push Your Pet Photography
I challenge YOU! Whether you are just starting out in the world of pet photography, or you’re a seasoned pro, we could all use a little creative challenging. Pushing our photography not only benefits our client work and our portfolio, but it’s good for the soul. You’re a photographer after all - sometimes it’s too easy to get buried in the business, but you wouldn’t be reading this right now if you weren’t, at the heart of it, an image maker.
Challenges force you out of your comfort zone, pushing you to experiment with new ideas and techniques. They can be difficult, forcing you to stretch your artistic muscles and test your skills. But they are so rewarding.
S12E03 | How to Sell Albums - Expert Tips from Queensberry
Beautiful albums filled with portraits of their beloved pet are the perfect keepsake for our clients to treasure for a lifetime - but if you’re not currently offering albums it can be overwhelming to know where to start! What’s the best size, how much should you charge, how do you design them? We chatted to album expert, Alexandria Baugh from Queensberry to answer all these questions and more.
S12E02 | Tips for entering The 2022 Pet Photographer of the Year awards from last years Peer Review!
The International Pet Photographer Awards have received global attention with articles in the New York Times, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and more to celebrate the winners and the pet photography niche as a whole.
With this years awards soon approaching, we wanted to give you a bit of insight into what to consider when choosing your images.
Tune in to this weeks episode for a reminder of how judging works, and some of the conversation from our Peer Review last year!
If you haven’t already, be sure to grab your ticket at: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/peer-review-2022
S12E01 | Breed of the Month with Rebecca Kostka
Pugs, Labradors, Dachshunds, Rottweilers - whatever the breed, there are crazy proud pet parents out there excited to celebrate them! Rebecca Kostka of Shy Wolf Photography has tapped into this breed enthusiasm with a marketing strategy that is bringing in new clients each month - tune into today’s episode to hear all about her Breed of the Month campaign.
S11E12 | Catchathon Craziness with Carolyne Cowan
Our guest today has raised thousands of pounds for dog charities with her trademarked “Catchathon” events and her latest event is garnering attention from news outlets all around the world. So we caught up with Carolyne Cowan of Carrie Southerton Dog Photography to ask her all about Catchathon, charitable marketing and how to host successful photo events.
S11E11 | Meet the International Pet Photographer of the Year - Veronika Sandorova
Tune into this video episode with last year’s winner, Veronika Sandorova of Ve Shandor Photography in Slovakia. She pulled back the curtain to give you behind the scenes insight into her award winning images.
S11E10 | Six Tips for Getting Started with Reels for Pet Photographers
The Instagram algorithm is seriously favouring Reels at the moment, so if you're not already using them in your pet photography business - now is the time to start! Tune into today’s episode for Six Quick Tips for how to start using Reels.
Need some extra help getting started? Check out the Pet Photographer’s Guide to Reels (with 45 Reel ideas, the Reel formula + 13 bonus tips). It’s free for club members, or available to purchase in the education store here: https://www.thepetphotographersclub.com/education
S11E09 | How to Work with Dog Brands with Kerry Jordan
Do you have clients who have their own pet-related business? Perhaps you’ve received enquiries from local dog brands before, or you know of small businesses that you’d love to work with, but you’re not sure how to serve them. Are you always wondering how you can create a package that would best serve them - stumped between your normal pricing, recommended licensing pricing, and giving everything for free? Stay tuned.
S11E08 | The Easy Pinterest Strategy for Photographers with Jenn Bays
Are you using Pinterest to grow your pet photography business? Or (like us!), is your Pinterest board full of photos of your dream house and recipes that you’ll never cook? Did you know that implementing a Pinterest strategy into your social media marketing is a really easy way to improve your Google ranking? Stay tuned for our interview with Jenn Bays of Success Beyond the Lens to learn everything you need to know about how to get started with Pinterest for your business.
S11E07 | Setting your BIG Goal for 2022
I've been working fulltime in my business, Ragamuffin Pet Photography, for over a decade now and it has become my personal tradition to carve out a time at the beginning of each new year to sit down, review the previous year and plan for the upcoming 12 months.
In our recent Planning for Photographers workshop, I shared the exact Review + Reset process that I use for my own business and life. Studies have shown time and time again that setting challenging yet attainable goals is linked with higher motivation, self-confidence and task performance. In today’s episode you’ll learn how to craft your own BIG GOAL for 2022.
p.s. did you miss the live workshop? You can still catch the replay here: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/plan
S11E06 | How to start a pet photography business that’ll last
I remember exactly how I felt when starting my business. It was completely overwhelming. I just wanted someone to give me a checklist and say “here, do this” so today, I’m doing exactly that and sharing my 5 steps to creating a sustainable pet photography business.
S11E05 | How to Rank #1 Pet Photographer on Google Without Sounding Like a Keyword Robot with Alison Writely
Are you worried that your website is a little bit . . . bland? As photographers, it can be easy to skip the copywriting and just focus on our images online, but words are powerful and catchy copy converts! In today’s interview, Alison Hockings from Alison Writely teaches us how to inject personality into your writing AND how to rank #1 on Google without sounding like a keyword robot.
S11E04 | Enter 2022 with a profitable price list
What are your business goals for 2022? If one of them is to feel more confident in your prices, (and increase your income) then todays episode is especially for you with my three steps for creating a profitable price list! Spoiler alert, it has nothing to do with the prices of the photographer down the road or multiplying your costs by a random number!
1. Know how you spend your time and your desired hourly rate
2. Know your cost of business (download free calculator)
3. Sell what you love- at prices that meet your targets!
FREEBIE: https://www.thepetphotographersclub.com/freebie-required-average-sale
P.S. we are taking a little break over the festive season and hope you are too! If you’re missing us, we recommend you dive into the archives during this time!
P.P.S. Are you in your first 18 months of business or haven’t officially launched yet? Join Kirstie in our Business Foundations Challenge for weekly Zoom class to set up a profitable and lasting business in just 3 months!
S11E03 | Behind the Winning Images: A Panel Discussion with the 2021 Photography Award Winners
If you were seriously inspired by the award winning images in the 2021 International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards, then you won’t want to miss this very special video episode. It’s a deepdive discussion with the Category Winning photographers, Travis Patenaude (Action), Esther Rybczynski (Open) and Jackie Eke (Portrait). I asked them all about their process for choosing competition images, found out the stories behind the photos and got their best advice for other pet photographers.
S11E02 | 10 Things I Learned as a Pregnant Photographer
This episode is a bit of a niche topic, but when I became pregnant, I discovered that there was really very little content out there about how to handle pregnancy and maternity leave when you are a fulltime solopreneur/photographer. To be honest, I felt a bit lost - when should I finish up shoots? How do I handle clients? When do I need to start back again? In the hopes that it will make someone (you?) feel less lost in the future, here’s ten things that I learned as a pregnant photographer.