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Small Town Success with Tracy Munson
IN THIS EPISODE:
#118 - Tracy Munson's town in New Brunswick, Canada has no stoplights. None. In Harvey Parish, a "traffic jam" is when cows or chickens are blocking the road.
And yet since moving to this tiny outpost in 2018, Tracy's managed to go full-time with her pet photography business AND find success with it. Hear how this week, in a fantastic conversation that covers moving, marketing, and being deeply suspicious of marked-down blouses.
What To Listen For:
- The hair-dye method for building a business
- What finally made her phone ring (it wasn't all that SEO work!)
- The easiest way to build relationships with nonprofits
- How Tracy sold out her book project sessions in just 5 days
- What to consider when it comes to pricing psychology
- When to work for free, and the kind of exposure that actually matters
Whether or not you live in a town as small as Tracy's, you'll find plenty of value in this week's episode. And you'll get a good laugh out of her original business name—I know I did!
Resources From This Episode:
- Connect with us on Instagram and YouTube.
- Explore valuable pet photography resources here
- Discover effective pricing and sales strategies for all portrait photographers.
- Ready to grow your business? Elevate helps you do just that.
- Check out our recommended gear and favorite books.
Full Transcript ›
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Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast.
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I'm your host,
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Nicole Begley.
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And today we're chatting with Tracy Munson from Tracy Munson photography
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in a very small town in new Brunswick,
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Canada. I'm talking small,
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I'm talking 100 people or less.
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You guys that's two zeros.
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Anyway, if you have ever thought to yourself that I have
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a market that's too small to make this pet photography thing,
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be a full-time thing.
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Well, think again,
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come listen to Tracy and story and be inspired.
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And actually even if,
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when you're in a big market,
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the techniques that we're talking about in the marketing strategies that
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we're discussing during our time together in this episode,
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well, they work in any market of any size.
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So stay tuned.
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Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast.
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IIf you're a pet photographer,
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ready to make more money and start living a life by
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your design,
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you've come to the right place.
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And now your host,
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pet photographer,
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travel addict,
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chocolate martini connoisseur,
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Nicole Begley.
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Hey, everybody,
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Nicole here from the hair of the dog podcast.
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And today I have with me,
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my special guest Tracy Munson from Tracy Monson photography,
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Tracy, welcome to the podcast.
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Hello. I'm so excited to be here.
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Yay. I'm super excited to have you here.
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Yeah. So you have recently made like a pretty big change
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in your life and business.
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And one of the things that I hear most commonly said
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from people is to why running a pet photography business might
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be challenging is that they're they think their market's too small.
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So tell us,
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where are you joining us from up there in new Brunswick,
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Canada From Harvey,
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new Brunswick,
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not the big Harvey of 2000 near Fredericton,
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but I'm in Harvey parish,
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which is down near funding,
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national park.
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And we have a population of around a hundred people.
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So we don't even qualify as a village as I understand
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it. So there you go.
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100, that's only two zeros,
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Actually. That was only the last time I checked.
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We were up over a hundred.
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Like when we moved here,
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it was like 80.
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That's crazy.
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Your major growth going on.
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Yeah. That is amazing.
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And you have done a really great job of having a
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profitable pet photography business in this small town.
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So why don't you let's take it back though,
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before the move and before we'll start to get in the
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nitty gritty of what you did to find success in the
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smaller area,
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but maybe just tell us a little bit about when you
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started your photography business or what kind of got you into
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this photography pet photography world.
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Yeah, well,
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it kind of happened gradually.
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I was a veterinary technician for about 25 years.
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So I'd been working in vet clinics and stuff for about
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10 years,
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and then I switched to working in animal shelters and I
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loved at work,
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but I also got really burnt out eventually.
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So somewhere along the way,
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I guess,
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around 2010,
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I actually,
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I think it was mostly because I quit smoking and I
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phones were fairly new and all the iPhone apps and,
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and, you know,
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editing your photos on the phone and stuff.
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So I had quit smoking.
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I needed something to do with my hands.
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I needed to not go out for cigarettes with my coworkers
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while we were on breaks.
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So instead I would sit in the lunch room by myself
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for 15 minutes and edit photos.
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And I had a,
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I had an iPhone three GS at the time,
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which I think was like three megapixels.
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The noise was terrible.
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Like the pictures were really bad.
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And so I started using a lot of like artistic effects
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and stuff to kind of try to make something out of
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these pictures.
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That weren't very good.
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And I,
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you know,
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I had an Instagram and stuff and at the time we
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were also fostering a mother dog and her puppy.
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I still have the mother dog Baca now.
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So, you know,
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that'll start it.
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And within a year or so,
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people were actually asking to buy prints of my pictures from
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Instagram. These were more like,
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you know,
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landscape and nature type,
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fine art things at that time.
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And then it just sort of kept going from there.
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And then in 2012 I decided I wanted to get a
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DSLR and start taking pictures of the big girl camera.
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So I did that.
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And at first it was really about taking pictures of wildlife
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and landscapes,
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because for me it was my escape from work.
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You know,
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I saw so much bad and depressing stuff every day at
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work. I wanted to just create beautiful things in my time
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off, but then within a year or so,
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there was a rescue that I was really close with,
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that we had gotten one of our dogs from,
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and they rescued a lot of the senior dogs from the
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shelter that the shelter deemed on adoptable dogs with health problems
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and stuff.
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So this rescue would take them and put them in,
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in foster homes until they could get adopted.
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So I really wanted to help them out.
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So I started doing adoption photos for them because at the
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time what they had wasn't good.
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It was,
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you know,
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it was just,
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it was just them,
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right. Snapping a quick phone photo of the,
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of the dog.
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So I started taking photos for them and,
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you know,
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then that sort of moved on into doing calendar fundraisers for
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them. And then people started inquiring about sessions with me.
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So this was all the way I was still in Toronto.
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So I already,
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so probably around 2013 to early 2014,
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I was starting to get occasional paying clients for,
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for pets,
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but I never really made too much of it or pushed
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it very hard while I was in Toronto because I was
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working full time and,
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you know,
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I was tired.
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Right, right.
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It's a lot of work,
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spoiler alert.
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It's a lot of work to run a business.
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So, you know,
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I had a,
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I had a business page and stuff and I did little
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things here and there,
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but I wasn't really marketing very hard or anything like that.
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You know,
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I was happy to do a handful of sessions a year,
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so yeah.
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That was kind of how it started and then just snowballed
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from there.
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And then when I realized that I really wanted to leave
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that job and we've been kind of thinking for years,
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we'd been wanting to escape to Atlantic Canada.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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It just sort of all started coming together that then,
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you know,
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That's fantastic.
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So I was going to say in,
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in Toronto,
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did you build your business to a point in Toronto that
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you were just doing pet photography as your main source of
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income then?
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Or was it kind of still part-time the whole time you
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were in Toronto?
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Oh yeah.
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Yeah. I worked at the animal shelter in Toronto right up
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until I left.
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I mean,
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Toronto's so expensive to live in and that was so to
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me actually,
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like moving here to this small town was kind of the
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only way I could see to do this because I couldn't
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really see how I could quit my job in Toronto,
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in the big city and afford to pay.
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Right. If the business wasn't,
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you know,
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making a lot of money right.
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From the start.
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Whereas we were able to buy a big old farm house
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out here on six acres.
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And my mortgage payments are less than a quarter of what
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my rent was on a basement apartment in Toronto.
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So, wow.
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That's a big difference.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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So I knew we could stay afloat a lot longer here
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than we couldn't Toronto while I built the business up here.
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So, I mean,
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I'm not going to lie the first year was not good.
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Right. Right.
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Well, it takes some time.
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It takes some time for sure.
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And, you know,
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I think that's a great potential reframe that people have.
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Well, you know,
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I guess it's different that you are moving to where some
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people are already in that more rural area maybe,
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and are kind of use to that cost of living.
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But if you are taking a,
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a change and you're wanting to move out of these higher
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cost of living urban areas to something that's,
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you know,
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a little bit more rural.
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Yeah. You don't have to make as much money to,
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to do the same things that you want to do in
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your life because it's the cost of living can be so
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much less.
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So. Yeah.
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No, that's fantastic.
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All right.
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So you moved out there.
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What year did you guys move out there?
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So we Moved in the spring of 2018.
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Okay. All right.
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And then started your business.
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What kind of was going through your head with your,
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where you moving out there and thinking like,
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all right,
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I'm gonna move out here and I'm going to do pet
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photography. Like,
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was that your number one goal when you had moved?
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Perfect. Okay.
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And then,
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you know,
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obviously you knew you're moving to a small town,
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kind of,
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what were you,
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what was your strategy thinking of?
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Well, okay.
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Where am I going to get these clients kind of,
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what was your head space or,
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or strategy around that?
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So I'm about 15 minutes of Monkton,
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which the greater Monkton area I think has about 160,000
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people. So I mean,
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still not huge by,
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you know,
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big enough to support me.
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Right. Right.
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I mean,
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I knew that I'd be looking for most of my clients
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there. So because we had bought a house out here the
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summer before,
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but then we didn't want to move just in time for
263
00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:47,100
winter. So we thought,
264
00:09:47,100 --> 00:09:47,340
you know,
265
00:09:47,340 --> 00:09:49,920
we'll stay in Toronto and then we'll move in the spring.
266
00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,040
So as soon as we bought this house,
267
00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:55,320
though, I changed my Instagram.
268
00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:56,250
I changed my website.
269
00:09:56,250 --> 00:09:58,050
I changed everything to say,
270
00:09:58,380 --> 00:10:00,360
serving Toronto and greater Monkton.
271
00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:02,430
You know,
272
00:10:02,490 --> 00:10:03,120
I started,
273
00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:04,980
I started tagging my photos,
274
00:10:05,130 --> 00:10:06,120
dogs of Monkton,
275
00:10:06,150 --> 00:10:08,070
even though we weren't in Monkton yet.
276
00:10:08,070 --> 00:10:10,980
Like as long as it wasn't a photo with the CN
277
00:10:10,980 --> 00:10:12,210
tower in the background,
278
00:10:12,210 --> 00:10:16,710
like who's going to actually say that tree is in Toronto.
279
00:10:20,700 --> 00:10:21,690
Yeah. Yeah.
280
00:10:21,690 --> 00:10:24,960
So you started doing that like SEO and Instagram or the
281
00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:26,610
social media stuff started to get the,
282
00:10:26,610 --> 00:10:28,500
did you get a waitlist together?
283
00:10:28,830 --> 00:10:29,850
Like before you,
284
00:10:30,210 --> 00:10:30,990
before you moved,
285
00:10:30,990 --> 00:10:32,520
like when you started changing that?
286
00:10:32,730 --> 00:10:34,140
No, not really.
287
00:10:35,220 --> 00:10:36,150
Yeah. Really.
288
00:10:36,150 --> 00:10:37,290
Just like I say,
289
00:10:37,290 --> 00:10:39,630
tagging things and by the time I moved here,
290
00:10:39,810 --> 00:10:42,150
if you search pat photographer,
291
00:10:42,150 --> 00:10:44,820
Monkton, I was the top result and I hadn't had a
292
00:10:44,820 --> 00:10:45,690
single client here yet.
293
00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:46,860
Now mind you,
294
00:10:46,860 --> 00:10:51,490
there wasn't really anybody else here doing just pets.
295
00:10:51,490 --> 00:10:52,500
So it's not like,
296
00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:52,860
you know,
297
00:10:52,860 --> 00:10:53,250
I had,
298
00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:53,850
you know,
299
00:10:53,910 --> 00:10:56,130
giants to jump over on,
300
00:10:57,970 --> 00:10:59,850
but Well,
301
00:10:59,850 --> 00:11:01,260
yeah. Any smaller market.
302
00:11:01,380 --> 00:11:04,080
Yeah. I was going to say any smaller markets should be
303
00:11:04,110 --> 00:11:08,670
fairly, fairly open for grabbing that SEO juice,
304
00:11:08,730 --> 00:11:09,000
you know?
305
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,280
Cause it's not like you're trying to rank in Toronto or
306
00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:13,710
New York city.
307
00:11:13,710 --> 00:11:14,910
Meanwhile, at that point in Toronto,
308
00:11:14,910 --> 00:11:15,180
I mean,
309
00:11:15,180 --> 00:11:18,840
I'd had my business for about at least four years and
310
00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:20,490
I think I was still on like page four.
311
00:11:21,030 --> 00:11:21,960
Wow. Yeah.
312
00:11:21,990 --> 00:11:24,210
Yeah. Actually funny story there.
313
00:11:25,770 --> 00:11:29,040
Something to think about for anybody who thinks still get kind
314
00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:31,140
of cutesy with their business name,
315
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:33,330
I've never told you this.
316
00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:36,420
But when I first started my business,
317
00:11:36,540 --> 00:11:37,170
I thought,
318
00:11:37,170 --> 00:11:37,980
well, you know,
319
00:11:38,010 --> 00:11:41,400
I love dogs and everybody knows how much I love wine.
320
00:11:41,790 --> 00:11:44,190
So the perfect name for my business would be hair of
321
00:11:44,190 --> 00:11:45,510
the dog photography.
322
00:11:45,690 --> 00:11:50,400
So terrible dog photography.com
323
00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:52,920
on GoDaddy and it was available.
324
00:11:53,050 --> 00:11:54,250
So I'm like done,
325
00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:56,140
got that domain name,
326
00:11:56,140 --> 00:11:57,520
set up a website,
327
00:11:57,520 --> 00:11:58,930
got some business cards.
328
00:11:59,470 --> 00:12:01,990
And then someday somebody said something to me,
329
00:12:01,990 --> 00:12:02,710
but I couldn't,
330
00:12:02,860 --> 00:12:05,110
I couldn't find your website when I,
331
00:12:05,110 --> 00:12:06,190
when I searched it.
332
00:12:06,220 --> 00:12:06,580
And I was like,
333
00:12:06,580 --> 00:12:09,670
really? And so then I typed in the way people do
334
00:12:09,670 --> 00:12:11,710
right. People don't type in hair of the dog,
335
00:12:12,130 --> 00:12:14,720
graphy.com. They type in hair of the dog.
336
00:12:17,170 --> 00:12:22,480
And what came up for pages and pages before me was
337
00:12:22,570 --> 00:12:24,310
posts from her,
338
00:12:25,540 --> 00:12:25,960
which was,
339
00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:27,430
this was I think pre academy.
340
00:12:27,430 --> 00:12:29,080
I think then you were just like hair of the dog
341
00:12:29,710 --> 00:12:31,840
Hair of the dog blog.com
342
00:12:33,010 --> 00:12:37,360
Actually also featured a couple of photographers in the Toronto area.
343
00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:42,040
So people surged hair of the dog and photography.
344
00:12:42,070 --> 00:12:47,230
They were getting like my competitors that had been featured on
345
00:12:48,930 --> 00:12:50,740
long before they saw me.
346
00:12:52,810 --> 00:12:58,840
So don't just look up the domain name,
347
00:12:59,170 --> 00:13:01,420
also Google the individual words.
348
00:13:02,950 --> 00:13:04,120
Yeah, no,
349
00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:05,620
that is a great,
350
00:13:06,070 --> 00:13:08,050
great thing to mention.
351
00:13:08,290 --> 00:13:09,250
I have a friend,
352
00:13:09,250 --> 00:13:11,260
she did family photography still does.
353
00:13:11,470 --> 00:13:16,090
And she was in the Philadelphia region and she used her
354
00:13:16,090 --> 00:13:18,190
name, but there was another family,
355
00:13:18,190 --> 00:13:21,280
newborn photographer in Texas with the same name.
356
00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,280
And there's only two of them and their websites were both
357
00:13:24,310 --> 00:13:27,550
very clearly marked of Pennsylvania and Texas,
358
00:13:27,910 --> 00:13:29,110
but they both,
359
00:13:29,140 --> 00:13:29,350
you know,
360
00:13:29,350 --> 00:13:30,880
they kind of became friends because it's like,
361
00:13:31,060 --> 00:13:33,490
they both had to refer back people all the time of
362
00:13:33,490 --> 00:13:34,270
like, oh no,
363
00:13:34,270 --> 00:13:36,610
you need this person over here.
364
00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:37,840
So yeah.
365
00:13:37,890 --> 00:13:39,010
And it's,
366
00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:40,810
it's true that people don't,
367
00:13:41,140 --> 00:13:43,570
they don't type in your L's like we should definitely have
368
00:13:43,570 --> 00:13:46,510
some URLs that are easy to mention and say for people
369
00:13:46,510 --> 00:13:47,140
to type in,
370
00:13:47,140 --> 00:13:50,080
but they just go straight to Google and type in,
371
00:13:50,140 --> 00:13:50,650
you know,
372
00:13:50,890 --> 00:13:53,110
kind of what they're looking for and then just click the
373
00:13:53,110 --> 00:13:54,100
links on that search.
374
00:13:54,430 --> 00:13:56,890
So that's a really important strategy to,
375
00:13:57,190 --> 00:13:58,540
to make sure it's working.
376
00:14:01,870 --> 00:14:02,440
That's funny.
377
00:14:02,620 --> 00:14:03,160
That's funny.
378
00:14:03,490 --> 00:14:03,910
All right.
379
00:14:04,090 --> 00:14:07,030
So you're move 2018.
380
00:14:07,060 --> 00:14:08,500
You set up all of your,
381
00:14:08,530 --> 00:14:09,340
all of your SEO,
382
00:14:09,340 --> 00:14:10,060
your website.
383
00:14:10,060 --> 00:14:11,740
That's one of the first things I did when I was
384
00:14:11,740 --> 00:14:13,240
moving from Pittsburgh to Charlotte too,
385
00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:17,140
is I started changing that I did put up a little
386
00:14:17,290 --> 00:14:21,310
waitlist slash kind of model call thing saying on my like
387
00:14:21,550 --> 00:14:25,000
Charlotte pet photography page on my Pittsburgh based.
388
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:25,810
So a website,
389
00:14:26,500 --> 00:14:26,800
you know,
390
00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:28,330
that I'll be moving to the Charlotte region.
391
00:14:28,330 --> 00:14:28,870
And when I do,
392
00:14:28,870 --> 00:14:31,270
I'm going to be needing models for different,
393
00:14:31,270 --> 00:14:31,840
you know,
394
00:14:31,870 --> 00:14:32,830
location scouting,
395
00:14:32,860 --> 00:14:33,310
yada yada,
396
00:14:33,310 --> 00:14:36,220
yada. So I had kind of a little interest weightless forum.
397
00:14:36,220 --> 00:14:38,890
So I started to be able to build my email list
398
00:14:38,890 --> 00:14:40,090
before I even moved.
399
00:14:40,090 --> 00:14:42,310
So that was a little bit helpful,
400
00:14:42,460 --> 00:14:42,850
but yeah.
401
00:14:42,850 --> 00:14:45,460
So you got you're on,
402
00:14:45,460 --> 00:14:46,240
you're ranked,
403
00:14:46,330 --> 00:14:47,920
you're doing the Instagrams,
404
00:14:47,950 --> 00:14:49,180
you get to the market.
405
00:14:49,390 --> 00:14:50,740
What was your next steps?
406
00:14:50,740 --> 00:14:52,400
How did you finally say,
407
00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:52,700
all right,
408
00:14:52,700 --> 00:14:53,270
I'm here,
409
00:14:53,780 --> 00:14:54,440
let's start,
410
00:14:54,650 --> 00:14:55,070
you know,
411
00:14:55,190 --> 00:14:56,870
getting some dogs in front of my lens.
412
00:14:56,870 --> 00:14:57,590
What did that look like?
413
00:14:59,210 --> 00:14:59,690
You know,
414
00:15:00,630 --> 00:15:03,110
it's kind of just like when I dropped out of university
415
00:15:03,110 --> 00:15:05,780
back in the early nineties and moved to Vancouver and then
416
00:15:05,780 --> 00:15:07,220
was shocked to find out that,
417
00:15:07,250 --> 00:15:07,520
you know,
418
00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:10,280
half a degree in English got me a job stocking shelves
419
00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:11,600
nights at the Superstore,
420
00:15:14,330 --> 00:15:15,650
it was kind of the same.
421
00:15:15,650 --> 00:15:15,890
I mean,
422
00:15:15,890 --> 00:15:16,100
you know,
423
00:15:16,100 --> 00:15:17,180
I first moved here and I was like,
424
00:15:17,180 --> 00:15:18,650
okay, well I've done all the things.
425
00:15:18,650 --> 00:15:21,140
So phone will start ringing soon.
426
00:15:21,170 --> 00:15:22,280
Right. But of course it did.
427
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:24,380
Right, Right,
428
00:15:24,380 --> 00:15:30,350
Right. I mean really meeting people was the important factor for
429
00:15:30,350 --> 00:15:33,590
me. So I've been doing all the online things,
430
00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:36,680
but the first summer I was here,
431
00:15:36,710 --> 00:15:39,500
there was an art fair in Monkton.
432
00:15:39,500 --> 00:15:40,250
That was,
433
00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:40,670
you know,
434
00:15:40,730 --> 00:15:41,660
it's a pretty big thing.
435
00:15:41,660 --> 00:15:44,570
It's at a park people it's over a long weekend.
436
00:15:45,170 --> 00:15:46,430
Thousands of people go,
437
00:15:46,430 --> 00:15:48,950
people bring their dogs to it because it's outdoors in a
438
00:15:48,950 --> 00:15:50,570
park. And I also,
439
00:15:50,630 --> 00:15:50,930
you know,
440
00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:53,450
I still sell some landscape and wildlife photography.
441
00:15:53,450 --> 00:15:53,900
So I thought,
442
00:15:53,900 --> 00:15:56,450
well, I'll take along a bunch of those kinds of prints.
443
00:15:57,110 --> 00:15:59,180
And then I'll also have,
444
00:15:59,810 --> 00:16:00,110
you know,
445
00:16:00,110 --> 00:16:03,680
a draw for a giveaway of a session to build my
446
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:07,730
email list with people that are actually in the same province
447
00:16:07,730 --> 00:16:08,150
as me.
448
00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:09,980
So that kind of,
449
00:16:10,010 --> 00:16:11,450
that was big because I mean,
450
00:16:11,450 --> 00:16:16,310
I still get inquiries now from people who met me at
451
00:16:16,310 --> 00:16:19,220
that first art fair over three years ago that are like,
452
00:16:19,610 --> 00:16:22,250
I remember I remember you from,
453
00:16:22,290 --> 00:16:23,570
from that art fair and stuff,
454
00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:27,470
which I also have to say that I've written a lot
455
00:16:27,470 --> 00:16:29,450
of the Facebook groups,
456
00:16:29,450 --> 00:16:29,870
some of the,
457
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:31,550
the ones about having more,
458
00:16:32,090 --> 00:16:32,360
you know,
459
00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:35,210
kind of upscale business models and stuff that,
460
00:16:35,210 --> 00:16:35,540
oh, well,
461
00:16:35,540 --> 00:16:39,140
you've got to look all professional and stuff.
462
00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:39,800
And I mean,
463
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:41,240
I don't know how well you can see it cause it's
464
00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:41,750
kind of dark,
465
00:16:41,750 --> 00:16:42,890
but I have blue hair.
466
00:16:43,340 --> 00:16:44,650
And my mom even,
467
00:16:44,660 --> 00:16:44,960
you know,
468
00:16:44,970 --> 00:16:46,040
to this day is always like,
469
00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:47,240
you're almost 50 years old.
470
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:48,530
Why do you have blue hair?
471
00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:49,160
But I'm like,
472
00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:49,400
you know,
473
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:53,840
if I had moved here and didn't have blue hair,
474
00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:58,790
I would be just any other chubby middle-aged woman.
475
00:16:59,420 --> 00:17:02,180
But now people come up to me in the grocery store
476
00:17:02,180 --> 00:17:02,570
and are like,
477
00:17:02,570 --> 00:17:03,980
Hey, you're that pet photographer?
478
00:17:03,980 --> 00:17:07,220
Right. It's 100% because of my blue hair,
479
00:17:07,670 --> 00:17:11,570
there's like remarkable might appear.
480
00:17:12,470 --> 00:17:14,600
So sometimes something like that could be a bit of a
481
00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:20,840
marketing strategy to not pair you're covered in tattoos or something
482
00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:21,380
like that.
483
00:17:21,380 --> 00:17:22,670
Like that's,
484
00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:25,160
it's not always a bad thing to stand out.
485
00:17:25,550 --> 00:17:26,120
I agreed.
486
00:17:26,180 --> 00:17:29,240
And I think a lot of people start to struggle with
487
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:32,960
like how much of themselves do they show and how much
488
00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:34,610
of themselves do they share?
489
00:17:34,910 --> 00:17:35,660
And, you know,
490
00:17:35,660 --> 00:17:36,230
for instance,
491
00:17:36,230 --> 00:17:36,650
for me,
492
00:17:36,650 --> 00:17:38,960
for my photography business and hair of the dog,
493
00:17:38,990 --> 00:17:41,150
chocolate martinis are a hundred percent part of my brand.
494
00:17:41,180 --> 00:17:44,240
Like people see a chocolate martini and many of them think
495
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:44,570
of me.
496
00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:45,830
So this is kind of what I want.
497
00:17:46,820 --> 00:17:48,080
So it could be your hair,
498
00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:48,710
it could be,
499
00:17:48,710 --> 00:17:49,230
you know,
500
00:17:49,260 --> 00:17:51,390
traveling, it could be your dog,
501
00:17:51,420 --> 00:17:52,410
it could be your cat,
502
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:53,580
it could be an iguana,
503
00:17:53,820 --> 00:17:55,800
it can be anything under the sun.
504
00:17:55,950 --> 00:17:58,770
But if we kind of choose a couple of those kind
505
00:17:58,770 --> 00:18:02,730
of personal points of connection and share them with people and
506
00:18:02,730 --> 00:18:04,800
just be available in that way,
507
00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:05,160
then it,
508
00:18:05,340 --> 00:18:08,100
yeah. It makes that connection and people can then remember,
509
00:18:08,430 --> 00:18:09,390
oh right.
510
00:18:09,450 --> 00:18:13,410
I remember you from that arch there three years ago,
511
00:18:13,470 --> 00:18:15,300
which speaking of,
512
00:18:16,110 --> 00:18:18,870
I would love to know kind of what,
513
00:18:18,900 --> 00:18:22,710
because I think a lot of people tend to get over
514
00:18:23,820 --> 00:18:27,450
and analysis paralysis with the idea of having an art fair
515
00:18:27,450 --> 00:18:30,630
table. So can you tell us kind of what you did
516
00:18:30,630 --> 00:18:32,880
to prepare for that or what you had at your table?
517
00:18:33,180 --> 00:18:35,100
Because I think some people think you need to run out
518
00:18:35,100 --> 00:18:37,770
like four booths with living room furniture and make it like
519
00:18:37,770 --> 00:18:38,400
this whole big,
520
00:18:38,430 --> 00:18:39,780
amazing spot,
521
00:18:40,590 --> 00:18:42,900
Really pretty like thrown together.
522
00:18:45,510 --> 00:18:46,260
You know what we have,
523
00:18:46,260 --> 00:18:46,770
we got,
524
00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:47,520
I got,
525
00:18:47,520 --> 00:18:47,870
like I said,
526
00:18:47,870 --> 00:18:48,240
I got some,
527
00:18:48,270 --> 00:18:49,700
I had some landscape and,
528
00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:51,270
and wildlife prints.
529
00:18:51,270 --> 00:18:55,020
So I had them just sort of hanging from the walls
530
00:18:55,020 --> 00:18:57,360
of the tent with chains,
531
00:18:57,360 --> 00:19:00,990
like two chains hanging down and little S books to hang
532
00:19:01,380 --> 00:19:03,660
the pickers all over the tent.
533
00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:05,850
So it was just like the walls.
534
00:19:05,850 --> 00:19:07,470
Was it like the plastic walls of the tent?
535
00:19:07,470 --> 00:19:08,100
And then that,
536
00:19:08,730 --> 00:19:10,200
I just thought of it From the,
537
00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:11,010
from the,
538
00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:14,430
I rented a booth with a 10,
539
00:19:14,460 --> 00:19:15,630
like I don't have an event.
540
00:19:16,350 --> 00:19:17,940
Right. So we,
541
00:19:17,950 --> 00:19:19,980
the tongue them from the metal frame.
542
00:19:20,670 --> 00:19:23,520
And then there was a table at the back that I
543
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,790
brought along a monitor and had my iPad playing a slide
544
00:19:26,790 --> 00:19:31,740
show. I had an easel at the front with a big
545
00:19:32,130 --> 00:19:33,930
print of my two dogs.
546
00:19:35,790 --> 00:19:36,270
And then,
547
00:19:36,270 --> 00:19:36,600
you know,
548
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:40,230
a sign saying that I was giving away a pet session.
549
00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:41,430
And mostly we just,
550
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:43,770
my partner Graham came with me too.
551
00:19:43,770 --> 00:19:44,130
And I mean,
552
00:19:44,130 --> 00:19:46,620
we just basically like for the whole three days,
553
00:19:46,620 --> 00:19:48,600
everybody, well,
554
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:48,870
I mean,
555
00:19:48,870 --> 00:19:50,370
at times when it wasn't super crowded,
556
00:19:50,370 --> 00:19:52,890
but when people walked by and certainly if anybody walked by
557
00:19:52,890 --> 00:19:53,700
with a dog,
558
00:19:54,120 --> 00:19:54,810
we were like,
559
00:19:56,100 --> 00:19:58,560
Hey, are you interested in a pet session?
560
00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:00,090
Hey, do you have any pets at home?
561
00:20:00,180 --> 00:20:00,540
You know,
562
00:20:00,540 --> 00:20:03,360
we just talked to people and I'm pretty introverted.
563
00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:04,410
So like,
564
00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:07,410
it wasn't easy for me to do three days of that.
565
00:20:08,100 --> 00:20:11,070
And I was actually saying just very recently,
566
00:20:11,460 --> 00:20:11,890
because we,
567
00:20:11,890 --> 00:20:12,240
we did,
568
00:20:12,390 --> 00:20:13,560
we did that when the first year,
569
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:14,910
then we did it again the next year.
570
00:20:14,910 --> 00:20:17,580
And then we did a big Christmas one and I got
571
00:20:17,580 --> 00:20:21,480
quite a lot of business between those three art fairs.
572
00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:22,200
And that,
573
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:22,710
of course,
574
00:20:22,710 --> 00:20:23,670
the next couple of years,
575
00:20:23,670 --> 00:20:24,930
everything was off.
576
00:20:25,710 --> 00:20:26,460
And I was just saying,
577
00:20:26,490 --> 00:20:28,200
I'm kind of glad now that I'm sort of at a
578
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,110
point where I maybe don't have to do art fairs anymore
579
00:20:31,470 --> 00:20:33,900
when they do come back because you know,
580
00:20:34,950 --> 00:20:36,840
it really was instrumental,
581
00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:40,050
like forcing myself to do that in the beginning because that
582
00:20:40,050 --> 00:20:41,520
very first art fairs,
583
00:20:41,580 --> 00:20:42,540
I think the first one,
584
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,510
I wasn't even selling anything like session vouchers,
585
00:20:45,510 --> 00:20:48,760
all I was doing was collecting email addresses for a draw.
586
00:20:49,750 --> 00:20:51,640
And at that one,
587
00:20:51,670 --> 00:20:57,610
I met this local groomer who had four dogs.
588
00:20:57,700 --> 00:21:01,030
She wanted a photo of her and her dogs on a
589
00:21:01,030 --> 00:21:03,850
white background and she wanted it to hang in her grooming
590
00:21:03,850 --> 00:21:04,810
salon big.
591
00:21:05,020 --> 00:21:08,710
And, and she really wanted it on a white background because
592
00:21:08,710 --> 00:21:11,470
she had a photo of an older dog that had since
593
00:21:11,470 --> 00:21:13,630
passed away on a white background that she had gotten done
594
00:21:13,630 --> 00:21:17,980
when she had lived in another province years before she could
595
00:21:17,980 --> 00:21:22,090
not find anybody in Monkton who would have more than one
596
00:21:22,090 --> 00:21:23,200
dog in their studio.
597
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:24,100
Oh, wow.
598
00:21:25,450 --> 00:21:26,530
So, Wow.
599
00:21:26,740 --> 00:21:28,750
I know someone that,
600
00:21:28,810 --> 00:21:29,530
yeah, you're like,
601
00:21:29,530 --> 00:21:29,920
I can do that.
602
00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:32,020
I didn't even have a studio.
603
00:21:32,020 --> 00:21:34,870
I do mostly outdoors or if people want them on a
604
00:21:34,870 --> 00:21:36,190
solid color background like that,
605
00:21:36,190 --> 00:21:38,260
I set it up in their house or in her case,
606
00:21:38,380 --> 00:21:39,490
in her grooming salon.
607
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:42,760
So we did that and she ended up with a,
608
00:21:42,770 --> 00:21:43,090
you know,
609
00:21:43,090 --> 00:21:45,730
a big 36 inch printer that is like the first thing
610
00:21:45,730 --> 00:21:49,270
people see when they come into her salon.
611
00:21:49,300 --> 00:21:50,110
So, I mean,
612
00:21:50,620 --> 00:21:57,130
she alone was probably responsible for about 85% of my customers
613
00:21:57,130 --> 00:21:57,760
in the beginning.
614
00:21:57,820 --> 00:21:58,240
You know,
615
00:21:58,300 --> 00:22:01,330
everybody that found out about me found out about me because
616
00:22:01,330 --> 00:22:01,510
of her.
617
00:22:02,230 --> 00:22:03,100
That's fantastic.
618
00:22:03,100 --> 00:22:03,520
So was,
619
00:22:03,580 --> 00:22:07,240
did you have anything specific set up with her or was
620
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,060
it truly just this beautiful piece of art and they ask
621
00:22:10,060 --> 00:22:12,220
about it and she was just word of mouth,
622
00:22:12,250 --> 00:22:15,160
just evangelizing you Pretty much.
623
00:22:15,190 --> 00:22:15,670
I mean,
624
00:22:16,060 --> 00:22:19,540
I had said that I would give her some credit,
625
00:22:19,570 --> 00:22:21,460
some print credit for everybody.
626
00:22:21,460 --> 00:22:23,590
She referred to me and there were a couple of people
627
00:22:23,590 --> 00:22:24,580
that she referred to me,
628
00:22:24,580 --> 00:22:25,360
but then like,
629
00:22:25,780 --> 00:22:28,510
there'd be times even now there'll be times I'll have a
630
00:22:28,510 --> 00:22:31,180
session and then it's not until later I'll see her posting
631
00:22:31,180 --> 00:22:33,370
pictures of them at her salon.
632
00:22:33,370 --> 00:22:33,790
And I'm like,
633
00:22:33,850 --> 00:22:36,640
oh, they probably found out about me through her.
634
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,550
Like I haven't really tracked very well.
635
00:22:39,550 --> 00:22:41,680
And that's something I kind of want to do moving forward
636
00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,590
in the future because I now have a vet and a
637
00:22:44,590 --> 00:22:47,320
few groomers that have been clients.
638
00:22:47,890 --> 00:22:48,700
So I'd like to,
639
00:22:48,700 --> 00:22:51,850
I need to start putting that on my form or something.
640
00:22:51,850 --> 00:22:54,190
So I know where these referrals are coming from so that
641
00:22:54,190 --> 00:22:57,190
I can do something to reward them a little bit better.
642
00:22:57,220 --> 00:22:58,360
But, but yeah,
643
00:22:58,390 --> 00:22:58,660
I mean,
644
00:22:58,660 --> 00:22:59,470
that was instrumental,
645
00:22:59,470 --> 00:23:01,510
but it's all just because I took the chance and went
646
00:23:01,510 --> 00:23:03,840
to this art fair at which I sold nothing.
647
00:23:03,850 --> 00:23:04,420
Like I still,
648
00:23:04,420 --> 00:23:07,570
I didn't sell a single way landscape prints or anything that
649
00:23:07,570 --> 00:23:08,410
I took.
650
00:23:08,470 --> 00:23:10,210
They did get people in the booth.
651
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:10,660
People are like,
652
00:23:10,690 --> 00:23:11,590
oh, that's beautiful.
653
00:23:11,590 --> 00:23:12,070
And Hey,
654
00:23:12,430 --> 00:23:14,170
is that in funny national park?
655
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:15,640
Oh, is that here?
656
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:15,940
You know,
657
00:23:15,940 --> 00:23:16,660
they, it got,
658
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,410
but I didn't sell any of them,
659
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:21,490
but you know,
660
00:23:21,670 --> 00:23:24,460
all of my business in the first year or so probably
661
00:23:24,460 --> 00:23:26,080
it came from about whatever.
662
00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:27,700
Right. That's yeah.
663
00:23:27,730 --> 00:23:29,200
That's a great thing to remember too,
664
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:30,910
because I think a lot of times we're really quick to
665
00:23:30,910 --> 00:23:34,750
judge whether a marketing venture was a success or not,
666
00:23:34,780 --> 00:23:37,810
or a failure and label it as such,
667
00:23:38,140 --> 00:23:42,220
but so much of this business is a long game and
668
00:23:42,550 --> 00:23:43,810
it just takes time.
669
00:23:43,810 --> 00:23:44,140
I mean,
670
00:23:44,140 --> 00:23:44,650
I had,
671
00:23:45,950 --> 00:23:49,640
that would contact me and,
672
00:23:49,670 --> 00:23:49,910
you know,
673
00:23:49,910 --> 00:23:51,320
my prices were more than,
674
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:54,080
than what they realized at the time.
675
00:23:54,470 --> 00:23:57,200
And they would come back a couple of years later,
676
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:57,500
you know,
677
00:23:57,500 --> 00:23:58,340
not everyone,
678
00:23:58,370 --> 00:23:59,300
but some would,
679
00:23:59,660 --> 00:24:02,600
and same thing with these kinds of work.
680
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,600
Like I would do some different things with our humane society.
681
00:24:05,900 --> 00:24:06,530
And, you know,
682
00:24:06,530 --> 00:24:07,850
I volunteered to,
683
00:24:07,850 --> 00:24:10,370
they had a big calendar and actually almost all the pet
684
00:24:10,370 --> 00:24:12,710
photographers in Pittsburgh at the time took part of it.
685
00:24:13,700 --> 00:24:14,390
And, you know,
686
00:24:14,390 --> 00:24:17,060
I would sometimes take adoptable photos and things like that.
687
00:24:17,060 --> 00:24:19,760
And I can't tell you how many of my clients would
688
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:20,570
come to me.
689
00:24:20,570 --> 00:24:21,470
And they would just,
690
00:24:21,470 --> 00:24:22,490
at some point say,
691
00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,280
I'd love that the work that you do with the volunteer
692
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,730
with the humane society and the humane society was never really
693
00:24:28,730 --> 00:24:29,660
promoting me.
694
00:24:29,660 --> 00:24:32,150
Like we did a little promotion once or twice,
695
00:24:32,510 --> 00:24:36,440
but it wasn't like they were out there constantly promoting me
696
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:37,940
or sessions or offers.
697
00:24:38,300 --> 00:24:41,780
It was just this natural progression of people.
698
00:24:41,780 --> 00:24:42,380
See it,
699
00:24:42,860 --> 00:24:45,500
and then they remember it and then,
700
00:24:45,530 --> 00:24:45,830
you know,
701
00:24:45,830 --> 00:24:48,830
it might take them a little time to get moving on
702
00:24:48,830 --> 00:24:49,460
it. So we,
703
00:24:49,460 --> 00:24:49,700
you know,
704
00:24:49,700 --> 00:24:51,250
we still need to be having this marketing,
705
00:24:51,260 --> 00:24:52,250
this urgency and,
706
00:24:52,380 --> 00:24:54,500
and making offers to people periodically.
707
00:24:54,890 --> 00:24:59,540
But I think too many of us are way too fast
708
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:00,620
to label something.
709
00:25:00,620 --> 00:25:02,000
And as that didn't work,
710
00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:04,070
because we didn't see an immediate,
711
00:25:04,070 --> 00:25:08,750
like my calendar is full now that it just takes time.
712
00:25:09,260 --> 00:25:10,580
That just made me think of another thing,
713
00:25:10,580 --> 00:25:13,160
actually, that I had completely forgotten I'd even done this.
714
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,850
But also then that first year I had gone first,
715
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:18,400
one of the first things I did when I moved here
716
00:25:18,420 --> 00:25:20,960
was go to the local SPCA thinking.
717
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:21,230
I mean,
718
00:25:21,230 --> 00:25:24,650
of course they're going to be delighted to have somebody with
719
00:25:24,650 --> 00:25:25,730
my background,
720
00:25:28,340 --> 00:25:29,360
But they were kind of like,
721
00:25:34,190 --> 00:25:35,270
so, you know,
722
00:25:35,330 --> 00:25:35,750
I was like,
723
00:25:35,780 --> 00:25:37,220
oh, well that didn't,
724
00:25:37,220 --> 00:25:38,300
that didn't go very well.
725
00:25:38,810 --> 00:25:43,910
So, but it just happened that there like volunteer coordinator though
726
00:25:43,910 --> 00:25:46,760
then had contacted me about the possibility of getting a session
727
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:47,690
for herself.
728
00:25:47,690 --> 00:25:48,800
So we had met,
729
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,020
but she never did actually end up booking,
730
00:25:51,110 --> 00:25:53,570
but she got in touch with me when they had a
731
00:25:53,570 --> 00:25:54,950
little Christmas market.
732
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:57,770
And it was just a little thing.
733
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,650
I think I paid $25 or something to be there for
734
00:26:00,650 --> 00:26:03,050
like every weekend in December.
735
00:26:03,290 --> 00:26:03,740
You know,
736
00:26:03,740 --> 00:26:06,590
it wasn't thousands of people or anything like that,
737
00:26:06,950 --> 00:26:10,160
but they had a gift wrapping table there.
738
00:26:10,220 --> 00:26:14,900
A few of the shelter staff had little booths they're selling,
739
00:26:14,900 --> 00:26:15,200
you know,
740
00:26:15,210 --> 00:26:18,170
little crafty things and stuff like that.
741
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,060
A lot of the staff were there,
742
00:26:20,090 --> 00:26:21,530
all of those weekends.
743
00:26:22,130 --> 00:26:26,630
And as we were all there and it was very slow,
744
00:26:27,260 --> 00:26:29,030
we would all get chatting.
745
00:26:29,030 --> 00:26:33,710
And I regaled them with hilarious stories from my shelter days.
746
00:26:34,730 --> 00:26:37,430
And by the end of December,
747
00:26:37,490 --> 00:26:40,460
some of the staff were beginning to have me come in
748
00:26:40,460 --> 00:26:41,360
and do pictures.
749
00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:41,720
They, well,
750
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:42,770
we've got to get Tracy.
751
00:26:43,410 --> 00:26:45,000
So, and I actually,
752
00:26:45,990 --> 00:26:49,050
I even did like a sort of model call type session
753
00:26:49,050 --> 00:26:53,100
with one of the girls there with her dog and stuff.
754
00:26:53,100 --> 00:26:56,070
So then she was promoting me all over the place.
755
00:26:56,070 --> 00:26:57,840
And so again,
756
00:26:58,050 --> 00:27:01,320
that then became another thing,
757
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:01,950
right? Like,
758
00:27:02,310 --> 00:27:04,500
did I sell anything at that?
759
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:05,370
You know,
760
00:27:05,370 --> 00:27:06,840
all those weekends in December,
761
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:07,680
no. Right.
762
00:27:08,130 --> 00:27:09,030
Was I,
763
00:27:09,300 --> 00:27:11,490
did I have anything better to do no.
764
00:27:14,580 --> 00:27:15,390
Right. Yeah.
765
00:27:15,420 --> 00:27:17,730
I like to say two for these different,
766
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,480
these different events and like vendor fair kind of things.
767
00:27:21,990 --> 00:27:24,000
I haven't done like a craft fair vendor fair,
768
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:25,410
but I did do.
769
00:27:25,770 --> 00:27:27,000
And I don't like,
770
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:28,020
like the really big,
771
00:27:28,020 --> 00:27:30,330
I don't even know if they still do them after COVID,
772
00:27:30,330 --> 00:27:32,040
but like they had those really big,
773
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,640
like expensive pet expos are like $500 a table.
774
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,850
Like I wasn't ever prepared to spend that much on that
775
00:27:38,850 --> 00:27:39,510
kind of thing.
776
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:45,390
But I loved the like community events that my humane society
777
00:27:45,390 --> 00:27:47,850
or some of the other rescues would often put on or
778
00:27:47,850 --> 00:27:49,020
like the community walks,
779
00:27:49,020 --> 00:27:51,570
but really those ones that the rescues would put on,
780
00:27:52,050 --> 00:27:53,070
at least for me,
781
00:27:53,220 --> 00:27:55,050
when I was in Pittsburgh was my target market.
782
00:27:55,350 --> 00:27:56,610
And they would,
783
00:27:56,610 --> 00:27:56,880
you know,
784
00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:57,750
be doing a run,
785
00:27:57,750 --> 00:27:59,730
but it benefited the rescue or it's,
786
00:27:59,730 --> 00:28:00,150
you know,
787
00:28:00,180 --> 00:28:02,400
these different things and you get together and it's a hundred
788
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,970
dollars and you're getting those leads may or may not be
789
00:28:05,970 --> 00:28:06,780
selling vouchers.
790
00:28:06,780 --> 00:28:08,580
I know for most of mine when I started,
791
00:28:08,580 --> 00:28:10,170
I did not sell vouchers.
792
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:10,800
I just,
793
00:28:10,980 --> 00:28:11,430
I was like,
794
00:28:11,430 --> 00:28:12,120
you, your first one,
795
00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:12,480
I was like,
796
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:13,920
well, I'm just going to get some leads.
797
00:28:14,250 --> 00:28:14,460
You know,
798
00:28:14,460 --> 00:28:17,340
I didn't even think to have a special offer at the
799
00:28:17,340 --> 00:28:22,020
table, but one of the unforeseen benefits of those types of
800
00:28:22,020 --> 00:28:26,850
events is the ability before the event starts to kind of
801
00:28:26,850 --> 00:28:29,340
go around and connect with some of the other vendors and
802
00:28:29,340 --> 00:28:31,590
get to meet some of these other people,
803
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:35,670
because that's where the magic is.
804
00:28:35,730 --> 00:28:35,970
I mean,
805
00:28:35,970 --> 00:28:38,340
if you guys have been following along at home and you're
806
00:28:38,340 --> 00:28:39,480
seeing a theme here,
807
00:28:39,540 --> 00:28:40,980
the theme is human connection.
808
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,020
Not, not SEO,
809
00:28:43,830 --> 00:28:45,300
it's helpful to have SEO,
810
00:28:45,510 --> 00:28:49,740
but being able to make those connections with people is so
811
00:28:49,740 --> 00:28:51,750
important, whether you're in a big city or small city.
812
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:53,220
Yeah. 100%.
813
00:28:53,310 --> 00:28:54,540
I don't want to put it out there too.
814
00:28:54,540 --> 00:28:58,380
I see a lot of times in various pet photography groups
815
00:28:58,380 --> 00:29:03,510
and on heart speak where a lot of times photographers do
816
00:29:03,510 --> 00:29:07,500
have trouble kind of getting their foot in the door with
817
00:29:07,500 --> 00:29:11,340
shelters and something that's not often addressed,
818
00:29:11,340 --> 00:29:13,710
I think is that shelters,
819
00:29:13,710 --> 00:29:18,210
often shelter staff are very like once bitten,
820
00:29:18,210 --> 00:29:23,550
twice shy about having prefers in there and volunteers really of
821
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:24,540
any kind.
822
00:29:24,540 --> 00:29:28,440
It can always be such a double-edged thing because shelters have
823
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:34,770
to make difficult decisions and sometimes volunteers lose their minds and
824
00:29:35,700 --> 00:29:38,730
slammed the shelter all over social media and stuff.
825
00:29:38,730 --> 00:29:39,450
When, you know,
826
00:29:39,540 --> 00:29:42,040
a dog maybe has to be used in ISED an incident
827
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:42,910
or something,
828
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:48,820
and sometimes shelter staff for whatever confidentiality reasons can't even really
829
00:29:48,820 --> 00:29:53,080
share with the volunteers what has happened.
830
00:29:53,170 --> 00:29:53,590
You know?
831
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:58,120
So I think that's kind of always a really a big
832
00:29:58,150 --> 00:29:59,920
thing. I know it was a big thing when I worked
833
00:29:59,920 --> 00:30:01,510
in the shelter and you'd have people come in and you'd
834
00:30:01,510 --> 00:30:04,690
be kind of like you could tell right off the bat,
835
00:30:04,690 --> 00:30:09,010
sometimes this person probably going to be Right.
836
00:30:09,070 --> 00:30:09,640
And I mean,
837
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:11,140
not to mention that shelters,
838
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:12,460
staff is usually like,
839
00:30:12,490 --> 00:30:14,590
they're very overextended.
840
00:30:14,860 --> 00:30:17,110
Like the shelter staff is so busy,
841
00:30:17,590 --> 00:30:18,820
They need somebody who can come in,
842
00:30:18,860 --> 00:30:23,860
do the job with minimal assistance and who isn't going to
843
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,530
end up actually being a,
844
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,000
like, not thinking of the right word,
845
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,430
but like a detriment isn't going to end up actually.
846
00:30:31,450 --> 00:30:32,440
Yeah, yeah,
847
00:30:32,620 --> 00:30:33,880
yeah. For sure.
848
00:30:33,970 --> 00:30:34,780
Yeah. And you know,
849
00:30:34,850 --> 00:30:36,640
this isn't a shelter conversation.
850
00:30:36,670 --> 00:30:37,240
Oh, go ahead.
851
00:30:37,630 --> 00:30:39,790
Sorry. I was just gonna say No,
852
00:30:39,790 --> 00:30:40,090
you're good.
853
00:30:40,090 --> 00:30:41,110
I was going to make another point.
854
00:30:41,170 --> 00:30:41,460
Yeah, go,
855
00:30:41,460 --> 00:30:41,750
go, go,
856
00:30:41,810 --> 00:30:42,070
go, go.
857
00:30:42,070 --> 00:30:42,580
Sorry. Sorry.
858
00:30:42,580 --> 00:30:43,300
If you don't finish,
859
00:30:44,710 --> 00:30:46,660
If you're that kind of sensitive person,
860
00:30:46,690 --> 00:30:48,310
that's totally fine.
861
00:30:48,340 --> 00:30:52,030
But maybe shelter work isn't for you anyway.
862
00:30:52,180 --> 00:30:56,110
Or like one of the smaller rescues that has animals in
863
00:30:56,110 --> 00:30:57,550
foster or something like that,
864
00:30:57,550 --> 00:30:59,560
that you're not going to be going back and seeing the
865
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:02,380
same dogs week after week after week and then asking,
866
00:31:02,410 --> 00:31:04,660
oh, where did Yeah.
867
00:31:04,980 --> 00:31:05,740
Yeah. You know,
868
00:31:05,740 --> 00:31:06,850
I think it's a good point.
869
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:07,650
So that's this,
870
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:09,250
the point I was gonna make is,
871
00:31:09,250 --> 00:31:09,460
you know,
872
00:31:09,460 --> 00:31:12,370
I don't want to like dive too deep into shelter ethics,
873
00:31:12,370 --> 00:31:15,460
but I think a lot of people have this,
874
00:31:15,460 --> 00:31:15,760
you know,
875
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,490
and it's just our sensationalized media and everything else that they
876
00:31:18,490 --> 00:31:20,020
think, you know,
877
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,270
non kill versus like,
878
00:31:22,300 --> 00:31:22,570
you know,
879
00:31:22,570 --> 00:31:25,330
the, the public shelters and,
880
00:31:25,510 --> 00:31:25,900
you know,
881
00:31:25,930 --> 00:31:27,490
gosh, those public shelters,
882
00:31:27,490 --> 00:31:28,420
I always worked closely.
883
00:31:28,420 --> 00:31:30,550
It was our public shelter that,
884
00:31:30,580 --> 00:31:30,910
you know,
885
00:31:30,910 --> 00:31:31,450
it was,
886
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:33,520
it was not a no-kill shelter,
887
00:31:33,940 --> 00:31:36,250
but like you have to remember every single person there.
888
00:31:36,250 --> 00:31:38,350
They're not there for the money they're there because they love
889
00:31:38,350 --> 00:31:39,910
those flippant animals so much.
890
00:31:40,030 --> 00:31:41,470
And they want to do right by them.
891
00:31:41,770 --> 00:31:43,120
And like,
892
00:31:43,510 --> 00:31:47,440
if there's no shelter that will take in because their mission
893
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,800
was, they will take in anything at any point where are
894
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:51,730
no kill shelters.
895
00:31:51,730 --> 00:31:52,390
Once they were full,
896
00:31:52,390 --> 00:31:52,960
they were full.
897
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:54,460
And then they were turning people away.
898
00:31:54,460 --> 00:31:56,170
And then what happens to those animals?
899
00:31:56,500 --> 00:31:59,680
And so as with anything in this world,
900
00:31:59,740 --> 00:32:00,940
there is no black and white.
901
00:32:01,060 --> 00:32:02,170
It is all a very,
902
00:32:02,260 --> 00:32:04,060
very deep shade of gray.
903
00:32:05,770 --> 00:32:07,180
But I think it's important,
904
00:32:07,210 --> 00:32:07,750
you know,
905
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:10,810
if you're going to be working with these different shelters to
906
00:32:10,810 --> 00:32:14,740
remember that the intention of all these employees and the mission
907
00:32:14,740 --> 00:32:16,720
of the shelter is to help these animals.
908
00:32:16,900 --> 00:32:17,380
It's true.
909
00:32:17,410 --> 00:32:17,710
You know,
910
00:32:17,710 --> 00:32:19,030
sometimes yeah.
911
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,670
No two different leads are very,
912
00:32:21,670 --> 00:32:23,110
very mistreated by the public.
913
00:32:23,770 --> 00:32:25,240
Like Yeah.
914
00:32:25,300 --> 00:32:29,260
Yeah. Often even by other rescues,
915
00:32:29,260 --> 00:32:29,800
it always,
916
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:32,110
that was one of the things that really started to get
917
00:32:32,110 --> 00:32:33,910
to me in shelter.
918
00:32:33,910 --> 00:32:37,240
It was just the way that these different groups that have
919
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:37,990
the same,
920
00:32:37,990 --> 00:32:43,220
like they have the same and yet tear each other apart.
921
00:32:43,250 --> 00:32:43,760
And it's like,
922
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:45,950
well, why like obviously,
923
00:32:46,100 --> 00:32:46,730
like you say,
924
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:48,260
none of us are here for the money,
925
00:32:49,370 --> 00:32:51,920
right? Yes.
926
00:32:52,130 --> 00:32:53,240
Yeah. So,
927
00:32:53,270 --> 00:32:53,630
you know,
928
00:32:53,660 --> 00:32:54,380
depending too.
929
00:32:54,380 --> 00:32:55,190
And you know,
930
00:32:55,310 --> 00:32:56,960
I think some people start to think,
931
00:32:56,990 --> 00:32:58,130
oh, I do want to give back.
932
00:32:58,130 --> 00:32:59,300
I do want to help with the shelter.
933
00:32:59,300 --> 00:33:01,040
And they run into these walls.
934
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:01,760
Whether, you know,
935
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:02,930
the shelter is too busy,
936
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:05,900
they don't have a strong volunteer program place where the volunteer
937
00:33:05,900 --> 00:33:08,600
program doesn't include like photographs and things like that.
938
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:10,190
They don't have policies in place with that.
939
00:33:10,550 --> 00:33:11,510
Or for whatever reason,
940
00:33:11,510 --> 00:33:14,690
they're getting the run around a don't take it personally.
941
00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:16,040
The shelter staff is overworked.
942
00:33:16,310 --> 00:33:17,690
Be, you know,
943
00:33:18,050 --> 00:33:19,040
check with the other.
944
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:21,560
There's gotta be other rescues in your area too.
945
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:24,560
I know I have found I've loved my work.
946
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,260
I've done partnering with some of the bigger rescues,
947
00:33:27,260 --> 00:33:29,210
but when I've done marketing promotions,
948
00:33:29,540 --> 00:33:32,120
I have found that the smaller rescues,
949
00:33:33,050 --> 00:33:34,610
it was more successful for me,
950
00:33:34,610 --> 00:33:38,030
even though one out to a smaller number of people,
951
00:33:38,330 --> 00:33:40,670
their supporters were like,
952
00:33:40,970 --> 00:33:45,050
so, so I'm just,
953
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:46,400
what's the word I'm looking for.
954
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:46,790
They just,
955
00:33:46,790 --> 00:33:47,660
they love this.
956
00:33:48,050 --> 00:33:48,920
Yeah. Passionate.
957
00:33:49,010 --> 00:33:50,960
They were so passionate about that rescue.
958
00:33:51,260 --> 00:33:53,750
And because it was a smaller rescue,
959
00:33:53,930 --> 00:33:55,190
they had a much smaller budget.
960
00:33:55,370 --> 00:33:56,510
So my,
961
00:33:56,510 --> 00:33:56,840
you know,
962
00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:59,810
500 or a thousand dollar contribution to their budget was a
963
00:33:59,810 --> 00:34:02,660
much bigger piece of their pie.
964
00:34:02,900 --> 00:34:03,860
Then, you know,
965
00:34:03,860 --> 00:34:07,880
one to the county shelter that has a $2 million budget,
966
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:08,390
you know,
967
00:34:08,390 --> 00:34:10,070
that's, that's a drop in the bucket to them,
968
00:34:10,070 --> 00:34:11,420
but to the smaller rescue,
969
00:34:11,420 --> 00:34:11,660
it's like,
970
00:34:11,660 --> 00:34:12,170
oh my gosh,
971
00:34:12,170 --> 00:34:14,060
we can do so much more with that.
972
00:34:14,060 --> 00:34:16,850
So they were so much more willing to help promote it
973
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,990
because they didn't have all these other promotions they were doing
974
00:34:20,990 --> 00:34:21,620
to, you know,
975
00:34:21,620 --> 00:34:24,110
bring in the funds to keep up that one and a
976
00:34:24,110 --> 00:34:26,930
half, $2 million budget that they have to do to do
977
00:34:26,930 --> 00:34:27,950
that broad scope of work.
978
00:34:27,950 --> 00:34:29,720
Those bigger shelters were doing.
979
00:34:29,990 --> 00:34:30,740
So anyway,
980
00:34:30,740 --> 00:34:31,940
long story short,
981
00:34:31,940 --> 00:34:38,480
there's always tons of different rescues charities in your area that
982
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:41,300
are all different sizes and not to discount the small ones.
983
00:34:41,660 --> 00:34:45,410
Sorry. I think we have a bit of a delay and
984
00:34:45,410 --> 00:34:46,280
ways to get involved.
985
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:46,490
I mean,
986
00:34:46,490 --> 00:34:50,120
you don't have to be just photographing adoptable animals.
987
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:50,820
Right. They,
988
00:34:50,820 --> 00:34:54,740
they may not have the infrastructure in place to have you
989
00:34:54,740 --> 00:34:55,970
in to do something like that,
990
00:34:55,970 --> 00:35:00,980
but they're never going to turn you down for fundraising or
991
00:35:01,340 --> 00:35:04,220
doing some kind of third party fundraiser that they don't really
992
00:35:04,220 --> 00:35:05,510
have to be,
993
00:35:05,870 --> 00:35:07,040
especially involved in.
994
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:07,880
You just do it.
995
00:35:07,940 --> 00:35:09,230
Right. Yeah.
996
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:11,300
And if you do have something that you want them to
997
00:35:11,300 --> 00:35:11,930
take part of,
998
00:35:11,930 --> 00:35:13,190
like to help spread the word,
999
00:35:13,430 --> 00:35:15,710
like if you can make it easy for them and give
1000
00:35:15,710 --> 00:35:16,730
them the copy,
1001
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:17,600
the images,
1002
00:35:17,780 --> 00:35:19,220
like all of the details.
1003
00:35:19,220 --> 00:35:20,960
So they literally just have to copy and paste.
1004
00:35:21,420 --> 00:35:23,810
You're going to be much better off that way.
1005
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:24,560
Yeah. I know.
1006
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:26,870
I've, I've gotten to the point to where I just,
1007
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:27,200
you know,
1008
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:29,570
I wish I had the time to photograph adoptable animals.
1009
00:35:29,570 --> 00:35:29,930
I just,
1010
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:30,620
I just don't.
1011
00:35:30,620 --> 00:35:32,210
So I give back,
1012
00:35:32,240 --> 00:35:32,750
you know,
1013
00:35:32,900 --> 00:35:35,930
and other ways whether it's through fundraisers or things like that.
1014
00:35:36,140 --> 00:35:36,440
So yeah,
1015
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:38,670
that, that's a great point that it doesn't always have to
1016
00:35:38,670 --> 00:35:40,440
be going in there to photograph,
1017
00:35:40,890 --> 00:35:42,060
have you with your new,
1018
00:35:42,060 --> 00:35:42,810
when you moved,
1019
00:35:43,050 --> 00:35:44,550
did you make any,
1020
00:35:44,580 --> 00:35:47,670
like, do any third-party kind of marketing or promotions or anything
1021
00:35:47,670 --> 00:35:50,850
with kind of nonprofits or charities as part of your marketing
1022
00:35:50,850 --> 00:35:51,930
strategy? Well,
1023
00:35:51,930 --> 00:35:52,440
with the,
1024
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:53,460
with the SPCA,
1025
00:35:53,460 --> 00:35:56,760
once I got involved with them than I was for a
1026
00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:58,590
while doing pictures of their adoptables,
1027
00:35:58,590 --> 00:36:01,470
that kind of stopped when COVID started,
1028
00:36:02,010 --> 00:36:05,580
just pick it back up and they have some issues with
1029
00:36:05,580 --> 00:36:07,750
their uploading photos on their system,
1030
00:36:07,830 --> 00:36:08,100
blah, blah,
1031
00:36:08,100 --> 00:36:08,370
blah, blah,
1032
00:36:08,370 --> 00:36:09,060
blah. But they're like,
1033
00:36:09,060 --> 00:36:09,510
you know what,
1034
00:36:09,510 --> 00:36:09,930
we'd rather,
1035
00:36:09,930 --> 00:36:14,820
you spend your time doing fundraising type thing than taking care
1036
00:36:14,820 --> 00:36:17,280
of your face and don't even make it onto their website
1037
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:18,780
before the animal's been adopted.
1038
00:36:18,780 --> 00:36:20,730
Right. So Right.
1039
00:36:20,910 --> 00:36:23,310
But just a good problem to have the animals adopted done,
1040
00:36:23,340 --> 00:36:23,700
but yeah.
1041
00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:24,600
Yeah. Especially,
1042
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:25,860
especially, and that's the thing too,
1043
00:36:25,860 --> 00:36:27,030
especially dogs,
1044
00:36:27,060 --> 00:36:29,490
right. At least for shelters up here,
1045
00:36:29,550 --> 00:36:31,830
dogs don't generally last long.
1046
00:36:32,340 --> 00:36:34,170
So be it,
1047
00:36:34,170 --> 00:36:34,770
it would be,
1048
00:36:34,770 --> 00:36:35,520
I would go,
1049
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:36,450
I'd take the pictures.
1050
00:36:36,450 --> 00:36:38,070
I would try to send them that night or the next
1051
00:36:38,070 --> 00:36:39,450
morning. But like I say,
1052
00:36:39,450 --> 00:36:42,270
most of the time the dogs would get adopted within 24
1053
00:36:42,270 --> 00:36:43,560
to 48 hours anyway,
1054
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:45,240
so Yeah.
1055
00:36:45,270 --> 00:36:46,080
That's fantastic.
1056
00:36:46,740 --> 00:36:47,430
So anyway,
1057
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:48,420
so yeah,
1058
00:36:48,450 --> 00:36:49,080
then I did,
1059
00:36:49,380 --> 00:36:51,330
I did a calendar fundraiser.
1060
00:36:51,420 --> 00:36:54,150
I've done a calendar fundraiser for them the last three years,
1061
00:36:54,270 --> 00:36:58,410
and then I'm working on a book project now that also
1062
00:36:58,710 --> 00:37:02,070
the session fees benefited them and I'll probably be donating a
1063
00:37:02,070 --> 00:37:02,880
portion of the book.
1064
00:37:02,940 --> 00:37:04,920
Nice, nice sales to them,
1065
00:37:04,950 --> 00:37:06,060
but I'm not at that point.
1066
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:08,490
Nice. That's awesome.
1067
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:12,300
Did they help you promote for both the calendar sessions and
1068
00:37:12,300 --> 00:37:13,170
the, the book?
1069
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:14,480
Oh yeah.
1070
00:37:15,180 --> 00:37:16,290
Yeah. Nice.
1071
00:37:16,410 --> 00:37:18,030
Yeah. So by that time I had that,
1072
00:37:18,100 --> 00:37:19,800
I did have that relationship with them.
1073
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:21,090
Right. You know,
1074
00:37:21,210 --> 00:37:23,610
I could text them stuff,
1075
00:37:24,030 --> 00:37:24,390
you know,
1076
00:37:24,660 --> 00:37:25,710
so Yeah.
1077
00:37:25,740 --> 00:37:26,820
Yeah. And you know,
1078
00:37:26,850 --> 00:37:27,660
people out there too,
1079
00:37:27,660 --> 00:37:28,500
that might be wondering like,
1080
00:37:28,500 --> 00:37:30,720
how do I start to make a relationship with these people?
1081
00:37:31,230 --> 00:37:33,150
And one of the easiest ways,
1082
00:37:33,150 --> 00:37:33,330
I mean,
1083
00:37:33,330 --> 00:37:36,540
you could definitely volunteer one of the easiest ways that also
1084
00:37:36,540 --> 00:37:38,010
becomes a marketing strategy.
1085
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:39,750
I don't know if you had done much,
1086
00:37:39,780 --> 00:37:41,130
many silent auctions Tracy,
1087
00:37:41,130 --> 00:37:42,210
or if they're popular up,
1088
00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:43,500
up your way.
1089
00:37:43,980 --> 00:37:48,330
But I found that it's like the easiest way to kind
1090
00:37:48,330 --> 00:37:51,060
of get a foot in the door at any of these
1091
00:37:51,240 --> 00:37:52,410
charitable organizations.
1092
00:37:52,410 --> 00:37:53,510
Like if they're having an,
1093
00:37:53,510 --> 00:37:54,540
an, a gala,
1094
00:37:55,170 --> 00:37:56,940
whether it's now virtual or,
1095
00:37:57,090 --> 00:37:57,360
you know,
1096
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,870
back before COVID in person where they need things for people
1097
00:38:00,870 --> 00:38:01,620
to, to auction off.
1098
00:38:01,620 --> 00:38:03,450
So you make a donation of the session fee.
1099
00:38:03,780 --> 00:38:06,300
I would always do like a,
1100
00:38:06,330 --> 00:38:07,410
a straight,
1101
00:38:08,130 --> 00:38:11,760
flat voucher amount that was decent amount.
1102
00:38:11,770 --> 00:38:15,120
So like 3 75 to $500 voucher.
1103
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,000
But I was always very secure in knowing that my,
1104
00:38:18,030 --> 00:38:20,430
that even if they get that most of my clients are
1105
00:38:20,430 --> 00:38:23,790
going to spend my usual like two to $3,000.
1106
00:38:23,790 --> 00:38:25,530
So you could just do like a,
1107
00:38:25,580 --> 00:38:27,240
a smaller voucher amount,
1108
00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:28,830
like say your regular prints,
1109
00:38:28,830 --> 00:38:30,060
like $125,
1110
00:38:30,060 --> 00:38:31,020
make it like 150.
1111
00:38:31,020 --> 00:38:31,890
So it's a little bit over,
1112
00:38:32,250 --> 00:38:32,760
but anyway,
1113
00:38:33,210 --> 00:38:34,410
sorry, long story short.
1114
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:35,200
I say that a lot.
1115
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:36,940
I go off on tangents because I want to give people
1116
00:38:36,940 --> 00:38:40,840
all the information by creating,
1117
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:41,680
by offering,
1118
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:42,940
getting in touch with them and saying,
1119
00:38:42,940 --> 00:38:43,510
Hey, you know,
1120
00:38:43,510 --> 00:38:44,980
I'm a pet photographer in the area.
1121
00:38:45,010 --> 00:38:49,360
Do you have any fundraising galas where you need auction donations
1122
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:53,680
and offering that auction donation is a great way for them
1123
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:55,480
to start to build a relationship with you.
1124
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:56,410
You vice versa,
1125
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:58,000
get to know that development director,
1126
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,400
they can then introduce you to other people.
1127
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:01,030
If you're like,
1128
00:39:01,180 --> 00:39:02,080
how else can I help?
1129
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:03,670
Can I chat with your animal care staff?
1130
00:39:03,670 --> 00:39:05,890
See if I can volunteer with them or photos,
1131
00:39:05,890 --> 00:39:06,970
or who do I talk to?
1132
00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:10,090
And then getting to know that development director,
1133
00:39:10,090 --> 00:39:11,470
if you ever wanted to do that,
1134
00:39:11,470 --> 00:39:13,690
third-party kind of marketing thing where,
1135
00:39:13,690 --> 00:39:15,790
whether it's that book or a calendar,
1136
00:39:16,030 --> 00:39:18,730
or I would do session fee fundraisers in the past where
1137
00:39:18,730 --> 00:39:19,030
it's like,
1138
00:39:19,060 --> 00:39:21,520
Hey, let's promote these special session fees.
1139
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:23,560
So it was a special offer better than what they would
1140
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,920
get. If they just went to my website and the shelter
1141
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:27,880
would help me promote it.
1142
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:31,060
And they would get a portion of each session fee booked.
1143
00:39:31,390 --> 00:39:32,800
And, you know,
1144
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:35,260
it was just an easier way.
1145
00:39:35,260 --> 00:39:38,770
I think if I would've just called up a shelter that
1146
00:39:38,770 --> 00:39:40,570
I had no relationship with and I said,
1147
00:39:40,570 --> 00:39:42,400
Hey, I want you to promote these sessions.
1148
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:44,710
And I'm going to give you a kickback from it.
1149
00:39:44,710 --> 00:39:44,970
You know,
1150
00:39:45,010 --> 00:39:46,480
you're going to get a fundraising on the back.
1151
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:47,020
End of it.
1152
00:39:47,590 --> 00:39:50,680
That's a big ask because they need to know you like
1153
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:56,470
you and trust you because when you're recommending somebody and partnering
1154
00:39:56,470 --> 00:39:58,420
on this joint marketing partner,
1155
00:39:58,660 --> 00:40:00,370
like they're putting their,
1156
00:40:00,790 --> 00:40:03,010
their brand collateral behind you.
1157
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:06,550
So they need to make sure that they trust you and
1158
00:40:06,550 --> 00:40:08,890
you're going to do a good job for their followers because
1159
00:40:08,890 --> 00:40:11,710
the last thing they want is that they promoted you and
1160
00:40:11,710 --> 00:40:13,210
then you don't do a good job.
1161
00:40:13,240 --> 00:40:15,580
You just take the money and run or whatever,
1162
00:40:15,670 --> 00:40:17,470
and then it reflects poorly on them.
1163
00:40:17,860 --> 00:40:20,920
So getting in touch with them in these different ways,
1164
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,140
I think just opens up the door for these relationships.
1165
00:40:23,140 --> 00:40:25,420
And so many more marketing opportunities in the future.
1166
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:27,760
It's the same for your clients too,
1167
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:31,390
right? It's that like having several points of contact often before
1168
00:40:31,390 --> 00:40:32,170
they're going to book,
1169
00:40:32,170 --> 00:40:34,720
like when I started my project,
1170
00:40:35,110 --> 00:40:39,310
I was amazed because it sold out basically within five days,
1171
00:40:39,310 --> 00:40:41,740
I had planned to have the registration period open for two.
1172
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:43,300
Wow. Oh,
1173
00:40:43,300 --> 00:40:43,970
well, I,
1174
00:40:43,970 --> 00:40:44,230
you know,
1175
00:40:44,230 --> 00:40:45,970
I just wanted to make sure I had at least 30
1176
00:40:45,970 --> 00:40:48,250
animals in the book and I thought I'll have it open
1177
00:40:48,250 --> 00:40:49,090
for two weeks.
1178
00:40:49,090 --> 00:40:49,930
And then if I have to,
1179
00:40:49,930 --> 00:40:52,060
I'll open another couple of weeks in the summer,
1180
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:54,400
I'll do another registration period.
1181
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:58,330
Within five days I had 46 people sign up over 70
1182
00:40:58,330 --> 00:41:01,030
animals. So,
1183
00:41:01,990 --> 00:41:02,530
and then I was like,
1184
00:41:02,530 --> 00:41:04,660
well, this book is going to weigh a hundred pounds.
1185
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,580
So I just cut it off there and thought better to
1186
00:41:09,580 --> 00:41:11,020
keep some people,
1187
00:41:11,050 --> 00:41:13,030
sorry. They missed it for the next book.
1188
00:41:13,270 --> 00:41:14,860
So that was great.
1189
00:41:14,950 --> 00:41:20,650
But the thing I noticed is like probably 70% of the
1190
00:41:20,650 --> 00:41:23,620
names in that book of the people who booked it.
1191
00:41:24,190 --> 00:41:24,760
Some of them,
1192
00:41:24,820 --> 00:41:26,770
some of them were repeat clients,
1193
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,140
but a lot of them were people that,
1194
00:41:29,170 --> 00:41:29,500
you know,
1195
00:41:29,500 --> 00:41:33,340
I've been interacting with over the last three years on Instagram
1196
00:41:33,470 --> 00:41:36,470
have been commenting on each other's photos,
1197
00:41:36,470 --> 00:41:37,400
maybe even messaging.
1198
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,760
Occasionally some of them have inquired with me about sessions in
1199
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:41,600
the past,
1200
00:41:42,050 --> 00:41:43,040
but then not,
1201
00:41:43,850 --> 00:41:44,270
you know,
1202
00:41:44,300 --> 00:41:45,980
got booked for whatever reason.
1203
00:41:46,250 --> 00:41:47,870
But having that,
1204
00:41:49,100 --> 00:41:50,000
having a deadline,
1205
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:53,750
having something to book that reason to book now was what
1206
00:41:53,750 --> 00:41:55,340
it took to get them.
1207
00:41:55,340 --> 00:41:58,040
But it's also all of those points of contact that we've
1208
00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:02,090
had over the years that made them do it right.
1209
00:42:02,090 --> 00:42:02,450
If they,
1210
00:42:02,660 --> 00:42:05,270
if the first time they saw me was when I was
1211
00:42:05,540 --> 00:42:06,710
promoting the book,
1212
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,070
they probably wouldn't have signed up for it.
1213
00:42:10,310 --> 00:42:12,080
Right. Probably not in five days,
1214
00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:14,270
having that many people book and five days,
1215
00:42:14,270 --> 00:42:17,420
you then definitely having that little bit of relationship prior.
1216
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:19,400
But I also want to put out there too,
1217
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:23,840
that being expensive is also kind of good that way,
1218
00:42:23,870 --> 00:42:25,670
because when you're expensive,
1219
00:42:26,330 --> 00:42:31,040
people want what you have and they value it.
1220
00:42:32,090 --> 00:42:37,910
Whereas when you're inexpensive people don't build up that desire if
1221
00:42:37,910 --> 00:42:38,540
they want it.
1222
00:42:38,540 --> 00:42:38,810
They're like,
1223
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:41,570
eh, I can have a big Mac anytime.
1224
00:42:42,410 --> 00:42:45,710
Right? So every time you go past McDonald's,
1225
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:47,060
I hope not.
1226
00:42:49,670 --> 00:42:50,330
Did you?
1227
00:42:50,660 --> 00:42:51,680
I know when I started,
1228
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:52,790
yeah, it was lower price.
1229
00:42:52,790 --> 00:42:57,350
So I started and I found that those clients tended to
1230
00:42:57,350 --> 00:43:01,310
be the ones that would like send the different Pinterest things
1231
00:43:01,310 --> 00:43:03,770
and had all the opinions that all the opinions of what
1232
00:43:03,830 --> 00:43:07,670
their final everything needed to be like.
1233
00:43:08,930 --> 00:43:12,650
Whereas one side then raised my rates to be more in
1234
00:43:12,650 --> 00:43:13,100
the, you know,
1235
00:43:13,100 --> 00:43:14,390
multi thousand dollar,
1236
00:43:14,390 --> 00:43:17,030
at least minimum four figure sale range.
1237
00:43:17,450 --> 00:43:20,990
Then the conversation my clients will start to say as well,
1238
00:43:20,990 --> 00:43:21,860
what do you recommend?
1239
00:43:22,190 --> 00:43:22,430
I was like,
1240
00:43:23,450 --> 00:43:25,100
I've really never had,
1241
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:30,650
I've really never had nightmare photography clients because I never really
1242
00:43:30,650 --> 00:43:34,040
was very cheap shooting burn because I was just doing this
1243
00:43:34,550 --> 00:43:37,910
on the side while I was working a full-time job that,
1244
00:43:38,180 --> 00:43:38,690
you know,
1245
00:43:38,720 --> 00:43:39,680
exhausted me,
1246
00:43:40,940 --> 00:43:41,600
the people,
1247
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:43,910
the people who did book with me generally,
1248
00:43:43,910 --> 00:43:46,070
like did kind of really want it.
1249
00:43:47,390 --> 00:43:48,410
And so I was never,
1250
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:48,680
I mean,
1251
00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:50,450
I was cheaper certainly than I am now,
1252
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:51,380
but I,
1253
00:43:51,380 --> 00:43:52,490
I was never super,
1254
00:43:52,490 --> 00:43:53,570
super, you know,
1255
00:43:53,780 --> 00:43:54,740
150 bucks.
1256
00:43:54,740 --> 00:43:58,080
Here's all your pictures on the USB stick or something.
1257
00:43:58,130 --> 00:43:59,720
It's never my business model.
1258
00:44:00,410 --> 00:44:01,220
And because of that,
1259
00:44:01,220 --> 00:44:01,790
I have,
1260
00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:02,660
you know,
1261
00:44:02,780 --> 00:44:04,640
generally had really good clients,
1262
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:08,330
but I also knew this game from working in that clinics.
1263
00:44:08,330 --> 00:44:09,950
We used to say that all the time,
1264
00:44:10,130 --> 00:44:10,520
you know,
1265
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,700
it's the client that you bend over backwards for and do
1266
00:44:13,700 --> 00:44:17,810
something for that's going to then complain the next time that
1267
00:44:17,810 --> 00:44:19,520
you can't help them out again,
1268
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:20,360
you know,
1269
00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:21,410
it's right.
1270
00:44:21,470 --> 00:44:25,130
The squeaky wheel gets the grease thing is something that actually
1271
00:44:25,130 --> 00:44:26,540
kind of really bugs me.
1272
00:44:26,540 --> 00:44:29,060
It was one of the things that really bothered me working
1273
00:44:29,060 --> 00:44:30,950
in those kinds of businesses.
1274
00:44:31,470 --> 00:44:33,600
So now I get to pretty much just avoid having the
1275
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,960
squeaky wheels because I can weed them out pretty fast when
1276
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:37,620
they inquire.
1277
00:44:38,820 --> 00:44:41,100
And you can stand by your policies.
1278
00:44:41,580 --> 00:44:45,180
Yeah. I had found not every time,
1279
00:44:45,180 --> 00:44:46,170
not every time,
1280
00:44:46,470 --> 00:44:50,760
but a lot of times if I would bend a policy
1281
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:51,720
for someone,
1282
00:44:52,110 --> 00:44:54,960
especially someone that like came in kind of last minute to
1283
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:56,250
my photography business,
1284
00:44:56,640 --> 00:45:00,720
almost always regretted it because like,
1285
00:45:00,750 --> 00:45:02,580
those policies are in place for a reason.
1286
00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:06,120
Right. So trying to think of like different things where,
1287
00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:06,360
you know,
1288
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,750
you start to feel like the empathetic part of me is
1289
00:45:09,750 --> 00:45:10,440
like, oh,
1290
00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:10,830
you know,
1291
00:45:10,830 --> 00:45:11,940
your dog is sick.
1292
00:45:11,940 --> 00:45:12,540
Okay. Yeah.
1293
00:45:12,540 --> 00:45:14,400
I'll, I'll change my policy.
1294
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:15,600
Okay. We'll squeeze you in.
1295
00:45:15,630 --> 00:45:16,350
Oh, this or,
1296
00:45:16,420 --> 00:45:16,830
oh, you know,
1297
00:45:16,830 --> 00:45:17,940
and it just starts,
1298
00:45:18,690 --> 00:45:19,290
I don't know.
1299
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:20,160
I don't know.
1300
00:45:20,190 --> 00:45:20,670
Like I said,
1301
00:45:20,670 --> 00:45:21,540
it's not all the time,
1302
00:45:21,540 --> 00:45:27,540
but definitely I would recommend being wary of bending different policies
1303
00:45:27,540 --> 00:45:28,080
like that.
1304
00:45:29,070 --> 00:45:29,850
Just randomly,
1305
00:45:31,530 --> 00:45:34,170
If I go into a shop and there's a blouse on
1306
00:45:34,170 --> 00:45:36,420
the rack that I'm like,
1307
00:45:36,450 --> 00:45:37,470
oh, that's really cute.
1308
00:45:37,470 --> 00:45:38,130
I like that.
1309
00:45:38,130 --> 00:45:41,100
And I pick it up and it's got a sale tag
1310
00:45:41,100 --> 00:45:41,430
on it.
1311
00:45:41,470 --> 00:45:44,460
It's been marked down several times and it's $5.
1312
00:45:45,270 --> 00:45:47,550
I'm not going to buy that blouse.
1313
00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:51,450
I there's something wrong with this blouse.
1314
00:45:53,250 --> 00:45:54,690
Right. And meanwhile,
1315
00:45:54,690 --> 00:45:56,670
if that same blouse was,
1316
00:45:56,790 --> 00:45:57,390
I don't know,
1317
00:45:57,630 --> 00:46:00,990
let's say between 20 and $80,
1318
00:46:01,650 --> 00:46:03,600
I'd probably buy it without her second thought,
1319
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:04,980
depending how much I liked it.
1320
00:46:05,790 --> 00:46:08,220
If it was a couple of hundred dollars,
1321
00:46:08,730 --> 00:46:11,100
I would have to really love that blouse.
1322
00:46:11,130 --> 00:46:13,830
But you can bet if I did love it enough to
1323
00:46:13,830 --> 00:46:14,370
buy it,
1324
00:46:14,910 --> 00:46:16,440
I would feel like a million bucks.
1325
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:18,030
Every time I wore that blouse,
1326
00:46:18,090 --> 00:46:20,010
I would wear it for special occasions.
1327
00:46:20,310 --> 00:46:21,480
I would actually like,
1328
00:46:21,570 --> 00:46:23,220
hang it up in the closet,
1329
00:46:23,250 --> 00:46:24,990
not just throw it in a pile on the floor,
1330
00:46:25,980 --> 00:46:26,430
you know,
1331
00:46:27,630 --> 00:46:28,290
hand wash.
1332
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:29,640
I would hand wash it.
1333
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:32,850
That is the Biggest Testament.
1334
00:46:32,850 --> 00:46:38,280
Right. There Could be the same blouse because you know what,
1335
00:46:38,370 --> 00:46:44,970
I don't know anything about blouse manufacturing or fashion or textiles
1336
00:46:44,970 --> 00:46:45,300
or whatever.
1337
00:46:45,300 --> 00:46:47,670
They could be the same blouse,
1338
00:46:47,670 --> 00:46:50,520
because the only way I know how to value it is
1339
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:51,750
by how much it cost.
1340
00:46:52,830 --> 00:46:55,830
Wow. That is a great comparison.
1341
00:46:57,660 --> 00:46:59,820
Does it affect how much I value it,
1342
00:46:59,820 --> 00:47:04,290
but it will also affect how much I enjoy it because
1343
00:47:04,290 --> 00:47:09,900
when I wear a $5 sale blouse off the clearance rack,
1344
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:13,920
I'm not going to feel like a special princess.
1345
00:47:15,030 --> 00:47:16,380
Right. Right.
1346
00:47:16,770 --> 00:47:17,910
Yeah. Well,
1347
00:47:17,910 --> 00:47:18,750
that's fantastic.
1348
00:47:18,900 --> 00:47:19,620
And you know,
1349
00:47:19,620 --> 00:47:20,850
you can definitely,
1350
00:47:21,030 --> 00:47:21,450
I think,
1351
00:47:21,450 --> 00:47:26,310
see parallels to that in whatever it is that you value.
1352
00:47:26,310 --> 00:47:27,210
And like,
1353
00:47:27,210 --> 00:47:27,630
for me,
1354
00:47:27,630 --> 00:47:29,230
it's travel and food.
1355
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:30,730
So, you know,
1356
00:47:31,150 --> 00:47:34,390
going to spend money on a really nice dinner or like
1357
00:47:34,390 --> 00:47:36,430
staying at a really nice resort one night,
1358
00:47:36,460 --> 00:47:37,930
like yeah.
1359
00:47:38,230 --> 00:47:41,830
I value that experience so much more and look forward to
1360
00:47:41,830 --> 00:47:44,200
it and like reflect back on it and enjoy it.
1361
00:47:44,620 --> 00:47:45,340
Then like,
1362
00:47:45,370 --> 00:47:45,670
you know,
1363
00:47:45,670 --> 00:47:49,060
when I'd stop at the normal holiday in for like a
1364
00:47:49,060 --> 00:47:50,350
horse show weekend where it's like,
1365
00:47:50,350 --> 00:47:51,340
I'm just coming to this hotel,
1366
00:47:51,340 --> 00:47:52,420
cause I need a place to sleep.
1367
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:53,800
It's just a whole,
1368
00:47:54,070 --> 00:47:57,550
a whole different level of value that you get out of
1369
00:47:57,550 --> 00:47:58,150
the product.
1370
00:47:58,390 --> 00:48:03,010
So our job is to find those people that value lower
1371
00:48:03,010 --> 00:48:04,720
offering in that way,
1372
00:48:05,200 --> 00:48:05,500
The same.
1373
00:48:05,500 --> 00:48:07,390
Right. I think even my prints,
1374
00:48:07,390 --> 00:48:09,400
right. I have clients that are like,
1375
00:48:09,430 --> 00:48:09,910
oh, if,
1376
00:48:09,970 --> 00:48:11,560
if my house was on fire,
1377
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:12,940
if everybody was out safe,
1378
00:48:12,940 --> 00:48:14,410
that's the thing I would come back for.
1379
00:48:14,410 --> 00:48:15,430
If I have more than one client,
1380
00:48:15,430 --> 00:48:16,030
tell me that.
1381
00:48:16,150 --> 00:48:20,680
Yeah. With the date deal that same about that same print
1382
00:48:20,770 --> 00:48:22,450
if they had paid 50 bucks for it.
1383
00:48:22,930 --> 00:48:24,100
Right. Right.
1384
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:27,790
Yeah. And there's all sorts of crazy psychology at play too.
1385
00:48:27,790 --> 00:48:31,540
Once you get into these pricing and I mean,
1386
00:48:32,500 --> 00:48:33,880
I've been guilty of this too.
1387
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:37,210
With when you see something that seems to be like that
1388
00:48:37,210 --> 00:48:38,980
really expensive blouse down to $5,
1389
00:48:38,980 --> 00:48:39,460
like you said,
1390
00:48:39,460 --> 00:48:40,600
what's wrong with this.
1391
00:48:40,870 --> 00:48:41,770
Or, you know,
1392
00:48:41,770 --> 00:48:44,140
if you're ever looking for airfare and they have those super
1393
00:48:44,140 --> 00:48:45,610
discounted airlines and you're like,
1394
00:48:46,090 --> 00:48:47,740
why is this ticket $39?
1395
00:48:47,740 --> 00:48:49,840
Do they do the maintenance on the plane?
1396
00:48:50,110 --> 00:48:55,210
I'm not sure you start to question all of these things
1397
00:48:55,210 --> 00:48:57,160
when things are just too inexpensive.
1398
00:48:57,340 --> 00:48:58,450
And you know,
1399
00:48:58,660 --> 00:49:00,700
I think that the challenge and I think what,
1400
00:49:00,820 --> 00:49:05,800
what holds people back from raising their prices is two things.
1401
00:49:06,070 --> 00:49:07,360
I think number one,
1402
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:08,950
it can be,
1403
00:49:09,190 --> 00:49:09,460
you know,
1404
00:49:09,460 --> 00:49:10,330
as the artist,
1405
00:49:10,420 --> 00:49:15,640
a total just mind game of worthiness and if our work
1406
00:49:15,670 --> 00:49:17,890
is worthy or not,
1407
00:49:18,220 --> 00:49:20,650
and we're always so hard on it,
1408
00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:24,130
much more harder on our own work than anybody else's.
1409
00:49:24,490 --> 00:49:27,250
And so we start to get in this like,
1410
00:49:27,370 --> 00:49:28,450
oh, I'm not worth it.
1411
00:49:28,450 --> 00:49:29,110
I'm not worth it.
1412
00:49:29,140 --> 00:49:30,190
I can't get this.
1413
00:49:30,220 --> 00:49:32,230
I there's no way I can command this.
1414
00:49:32,230 --> 00:49:33,040
This is crap.
1415
00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:36,280
Which if you guys are out there feeling that way,
1416
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:38,860
the best way to kind of start to get over that
1417
00:49:38,860 --> 00:49:42,250
is to just really ask a valued opinion from,
1418
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:43,060
from someone that,
1419
00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:46,450
that knows what work is sellable and can give you some
1420
00:49:46,450 --> 00:49:48,550
honest, direct feedback on your,
1421
00:49:48,550 --> 00:49:49,090
on your work.
1422
00:49:49,090 --> 00:49:52,600
Cause I find that when people are asking that,
1423
00:49:53,770 --> 00:49:57,880
generally, if they're asking that their work is fine,
1424
00:49:58,870 --> 00:50:04,030
it's, it's the people that I know It's usually like beautiful.
1425
00:50:04,050 --> 00:50:04,600
Like, ah,
1426
00:50:04,660 --> 00:50:06,790
yes, it's gorgeous.
1427
00:50:07,060 --> 00:50:07,750
But like,
1428
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:11,230
if you're asking yourself that question and thinking it's not good
1429
00:50:11,230 --> 00:50:13,420
enough, nine times out of 10,
1430
00:50:13,720 --> 00:50:14,500
it is,
1431
00:50:14,620 --> 00:50:15,490
or it's like,
1432
00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:16,540
knock it out of the park.
1433
00:50:16,570 --> 00:50:18,790
Beautiful. But you're just being way too hard on yourself.
1434
00:50:19,090 --> 00:50:22,450
And then the other end of the spectrum is I see
1435
00:50:22,450 --> 00:50:23,650
people that,
1436
00:50:23,770 --> 00:50:24,130
you know,
1437
00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:26,260
maybe their work does need some basic,
1438
00:50:26,260 --> 00:50:28,760
still like the white color might be off or the white
1439
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:30,890
balance or the exposure or something like that.
1440
00:50:30,890 --> 00:50:31,460
But they're just like,
1441
00:50:33,860 --> 00:50:37,490
and that was kind of me when I started,
1442
00:50:37,490 --> 00:50:38,300
I thought it was like,
1443
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:39,080
this is awesome.
1444
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:40,880
It's the best work I've done yet because it was the
1445
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:41,930
best work I had done yet,
1446
00:50:41,930 --> 00:50:42,740
but it was still crap.
1447
00:50:44,500 --> 00:50:45,110
But I was like,
1448
00:50:45,140 --> 00:50:46,730
oh, and this is the best one yet.
1449
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:48,050
But if you're there too,
1450
00:50:48,050 --> 00:50:50,660
you can also still start to start this business.
1451
00:50:50,660 --> 00:50:53,510
Because if you're showing your work,
1452
00:50:53,510 --> 00:50:55,640
your clients are seeing that work and they are liking it
1453
00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:58,580
too. Even if it's not a,
1454
00:50:58,580 --> 00:50:59,150
you know,
1455
00:50:59,240 --> 00:51:01,670
award-winning photography at this point,
1456
00:51:01,670 --> 00:51:02,630
like it's still,
1457
00:51:02,660 --> 00:51:04,670
still needs to get a little bit of improvement.
1458
00:51:04,700 --> 00:51:07,360
Now. I'm not saying like work isn't important or craft is
1459
00:51:07,380 --> 00:51:08,150
important to everybody.
1460
00:51:08,150 --> 00:51:08,870
Don't miss hear me.
1461
00:51:09,110 --> 00:51:10,520
You always want to improve your craft.
1462
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:12,470
And we want to make sure we're selling,
1463
00:51:12,500 --> 00:51:12,950
you know,
1464
00:51:14,060 --> 00:51:15,830
good technically correct work.
1465
00:51:15,950 --> 00:51:16,310
But yeah,
1466
00:51:16,340 --> 00:51:17,210
I started,
1467
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:18,530
oh, Tracy,
1468
00:51:18,530 --> 00:51:20,360
I look at some of my first photos and I'm like,
1469
00:51:20,390 --> 00:51:20,870
oh my God,
1470
00:51:20,870 --> 00:51:22,130
someone paid me for that.
1471
00:51:22,130 --> 00:51:23,690
And I kind of felt bad and I want to go
1472
00:51:23,690 --> 00:51:24,290
reshoot them.
1473
00:51:25,730 --> 00:51:28,610
No, I'm glad my early photos were rescue dogs.
1474
00:51:33,260 --> 00:51:35,060
I wasn't getting like,
1475
00:51:35,060 --> 00:51:35,360
you know what?
1476
00:51:35,360 --> 00:51:36,470
The thing to even,
1477
00:51:36,500 --> 00:51:36,800
I mean,
1478
00:51:37,790 --> 00:51:39,230
competition has been very,
1479
00:51:39,230 --> 00:51:40,250
very good for me.
1480
00:51:40,250 --> 00:51:40,940
Like doing,
1481
00:51:41,540 --> 00:51:43,400
not competition as a local competition,
1482
00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:45,980
but doing competitions has been really good for me.
1483
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:53,540
Like print competitions for overcoming imposter syndrome and stuff like that.
1484
00:51:53,930 --> 00:51:58,130
But competition and client work are two very different things.
1485
00:51:58,130 --> 00:51:58,730
Anyway, in fact,
1486
00:51:58,760 --> 00:51:59,750
I have like,
1487
00:51:59,930 --> 00:52:02,540
I have images that have won big awards that aren't even
1488
00:52:02,540 --> 00:52:03,650
ones to clients picked.
1489
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:08,120
Right. Was it a client work?
1490
00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:10,340
Was it work that you had shot for the client?
1491
00:52:12,170 --> 00:52:12,730
Yeah, yeah.
1492
00:52:13,460 --> 00:52:15,200
Yeah. They,
1493
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:17,300
in my opinion purchased the wrong images,
1494
00:52:17,420 --> 00:52:21,770
but I was like the one I'm going to enter in
1495
00:52:21,770 --> 00:52:22,730
competition and then,
1496
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:23,090
you know,
1497
00:52:23,090 --> 00:52:24,110
wins all these awards and stuff.
1498
00:52:24,500 --> 00:52:25,130
Most cases,
1499
00:52:25,130 --> 00:52:25,760
maybe one,
1500
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:27,920
they got it still in their album or,
1501
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:28,190
you know,
1502
00:52:28,190 --> 00:52:30,560
they've got an eight by 10 and their folio box or
1503
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:33,590
something. But in almost every case,
1504
00:52:33,650 --> 00:52:36,440
the one that they pick for their big piece of Wal-Mart
1505
00:52:36,450 --> 00:52:39,560
is almost never the one I would have picked with a
1506
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:41,180
competition. I,
1507
00:52:42,110 --> 00:52:43,520
because clients,
1508
00:52:43,520 --> 00:52:47,360
aren't looking at a lot of perfection spots that we're looking
1509
00:52:47,360 --> 00:52:47,780
out for,
1510
00:52:48,020 --> 00:52:48,850
for competition.
1511
00:52:48,890 --> 00:52:49,850
They're good for expression.
1512
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:50,120
I mean,
1513
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:53,630
in fact things like the rule of thirds and stuff,
1514
00:52:53,630 --> 00:52:56,060
like, I can't tell you how often I've had clients be
1515
00:52:56,060 --> 00:52:56,570
like, well,
1516
00:52:56,570 --> 00:52:57,140
I'd like it better.
1517
00:52:57,140 --> 00:52:58,760
If the dog was more like centered,
1518
00:53:01,310 --> 00:53:01,700
they don't,
1519
00:53:01,970 --> 00:53:03,680
they don't care about those things.
1520
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:06,530
They don't want the dog off-center necessarily.
1521
00:53:06,530 --> 00:53:06,980
They don't,
1522
00:53:07,310 --> 00:53:10,040
they don't want it to be all artsy.
1523
00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:11,960
They just want it to be a beautiful picture of their
1524
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:13,380
dog. Yup.
1525
00:53:13,430 --> 00:53:16,130
Yup. Which that doesn't mean we shouldn't still create the artsy.
1526
00:53:16,130 --> 00:53:17,690
I still create my rule of thirds.
1527
00:53:17,690 --> 00:53:18,410
Negative space.
1528
00:53:18,530 --> 00:53:19,460
Yeah. It is funny.
1529
00:53:19,460 --> 00:53:21,560
I do find that a lot of my clients,
1530
00:53:21,860 --> 00:53:24,050
like I have a couple images in there.
1531
00:53:24,060 --> 00:53:24,350
I'm like,
1532
00:53:24,350 --> 00:53:26,940
yes, this is the one this is going to look amazing
1533
00:53:26,970 --> 00:53:27,900
big on their wall.
1534
00:53:27,900 --> 00:53:28,260
And they're like,
1535
00:53:28,260 --> 00:53:29,460
man, I like this one.
1536
00:53:29,490 --> 00:53:30,240
Like what?
1537
00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:33,480
Really? No you're supposed to like this one.
1538
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:36,090
Oh man.
1539
00:53:37,320 --> 00:53:37,950
Oh my gosh,
1540
00:53:38,630 --> 00:53:41,280
this has been such a good conversation.
1541
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:41,880
And I could like,
1542
00:53:41,910 --> 00:53:43,980
we could go off into like a whole entire rabbit hole
1543
00:53:43,980 --> 00:53:45,000
on like print competition,
1544
00:53:45,090 --> 00:53:45,930
all those other things,
1545
00:53:45,930 --> 00:53:48,150
but maybe I'll have to have you back on a future
1546
00:53:48,150 --> 00:53:50,250
podcast. We can talk all about that rabbit hole,
1547
00:53:50,910 --> 00:53:51,360
but Tracy,
1548
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:54,210
thank you for sharing all this to wrap up.
1549
00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:58,200
What would be your word of advice for somebody that's sitting,
1550
00:53:58,230 --> 00:53:58,590
you know,
1551
00:53:58,590 --> 00:54:01,110
in a smaller market and you know,
1552
00:54:01,110 --> 00:54:04,500
starting to question on if this is achievable,
1553
00:54:04,500 --> 00:54:05,760
if they can actually,
1554
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:06,030
you know,
1555
00:54:06,030 --> 00:54:07,890
make a go of this pet photography thing,
1556
00:54:08,230 --> 00:54:10,770
what's kind of the secret to success or your advice for
1557
00:54:10,770 --> 00:54:12,240
them? Well,
1558
00:54:12,240 --> 00:54:15,120
I think the secret to success probably with any businesses,
1559
00:54:15,210 --> 00:54:16,710
partly just persistence.
1560
00:54:17,400 --> 00:54:18,870
Yeah. And,
1561
00:54:19,050 --> 00:54:21,330
and doing it like you kind of have to do the
1562
00:54:21,330 --> 00:54:22,020
stuff, right?
1563
00:54:22,020 --> 00:54:24,030
Like when I first got here,
1564
00:54:24,460 --> 00:54:25,410
when we first got here,
1565
00:54:25,410 --> 00:54:27,090
we bought this old farm house.
1566
00:54:27,090 --> 00:54:29,460
We spent the first few months fixing stuff up and everything.
1567
00:54:29,460 --> 00:54:32,580
I wasn't really pushing myself overly too to get out there,
1568
00:54:32,580 --> 00:54:38,190
but those clients didn't start coming in until I started getting
1569
00:54:38,190 --> 00:54:39,150
out there,
1570
00:54:39,270 --> 00:54:40,860
meeting people,
1571
00:54:40,980 --> 00:54:45,120
making connections with local pet shops and stuff.
1572
00:54:45,510 --> 00:54:48,690
One thing that I did that I think was really good
1573
00:54:48,690 --> 00:54:53,310
was the second year that it did a calendar for the
1574
00:54:53,310 --> 00:54:58,350
SPCA, I made it a pet-friendly Monkton calendar.
1575
00:54:58,890 --> 00:55:05,460
And so it was actually pet-friendly businesses that paid to be
1576
00:55:05,460 --> 00:55:06,900
in the calendar.
1577
00:55:07,890 --> 00:55:12,870
So there was like a couple of local like brew pub
1578
00:55:13,110 --> 00:55:15,900
type places that didn't serve food.
1579
00:55:15,900 --> 00:55:17,430
So they allowed pets.
1580
00:55:20,670 --> 00:55:28,170
There was a pet-friendly hotel that has since been actually a
1581
00:55:28,170 --> 00:55:30,930
big supporter of a couple of other fundraising things we've done
1582
00:55:30,930 --> 00:55:32,240
to there.
1583
00:55:32,240 --> 00:55:33,510
There was just a whole bunch of different.
1584
00:55:33,510 --> 00:55:34,230
And then also,
1585
00:55:34,230 --> 00:55:34,560
you know,
1586
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:36,270
there was like a local pet shop,
1587
00:55:36,300 --> 00:55:37,110
a groomer.
1588
00:55:37,110 --> 00:55:37,440
There was,
1589
00:55:37,440 --> 00:55:39,630
there was a whole bunch and that just gave me the
1590
00:55:39,630 --> 00:55:42,060
chance to connect with those people.
1591
00:55:42,060 --> 00:55:44,970
Did I make any significant money off of that?
1592
00:55:45,180 --> 00:55:51,990
No, but I made more connections in the pet business and
1593
00:55:51,990 --> 00:55:54,150
pet friendly community.
1594
00:55:54,150 --> 00:55:57,390
And it's all just building that community around you.
1595
00:55:57,390 --> 00:55:57,720
And I mean,
1596
00:55:57,720 --> 00:56:01,980
sometimes you just have to decide when you're going to work
1597
00:56:01,980 --> 00:56:05,850
for free don't work for free for clients work for free
1598
00:56:05,850 --> 00:56:11,190
for fundraising or for causes that you believe in that are
1599
00:56:11,190 --> 00:56:11,910
going to get you,
1600
00:56:11,940 --> 00:56:13,200
not that you know,
1601
00:56:13,260 --> 00:56:14,820
exposure. Oh,
1602
00:56:14,850 --> 00:56:15,870
do it for exposure,
1603
00:56:15,900 --> 00:56:20,490
but get you actual like exposure with people that matter to
1604
00:56:20,490 --> 00:56:21,390
become friends With.
1605
00:56:22,050 --> 00:56:23,070
I always like to say,
1606
00:56:23,890 --> 00:56:25,600
I always like to say for the working with free,
1607
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:27,040
like if it's your idea,
1608
00:56:27,310 --> 00:56:28,600
like, I think people get this,
1609
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:30,190
like I've been told I can't work for free.
1610
00:56:30,190 --> 00:56:30,910
I can't work for free.
1611
00:56:30,910 --> 00:56:32,530
And they think that like they can never,
1612
00:56:32,530 --> 00:56:34,240
ever do anything for free ever.
1613
00:56:34,570 --> 00:56:34,750
No, no,
1614
00:56:34,750 --> 00:56:35,160
no, no.
1615
00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:38,110
If it's your idea a hundred percent work for free,
1616
00:56:38,110 --> 00:56:40,300
if it's for a great cause if it's something that makes
1617
00:56:40,300 --> 00:56:40,930
you feel good,
1618
00:56:40,930 --> 00:56:44,170
if it's something to create a connection in your market that
1619
00:56:44,170 --> 00:56:46,120
will lead to other opportunities later,
1620
00:56:46,540 --> 00:56:47,290
then yes,
1621
00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:48,070
you can work for free.
1622
00:56:48,070 --> 00:56:50,320
It's when other people are asking you to work for free
1623
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:51,370
without any like,
1624
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:51,640
you know,
1625
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:52,000
and you're like,
1626
00:56:52,030 --> 00:56:54,100
I don't feel like I'm getting anything out of the steel
1627
00:56:54,250 --> 00:56:55,180
that's when you say no,
1628
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:58,840
but there's definitely still places to work for free.
1629
00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:01,150
I also love what you said too about,
1630
00:57:01,180 --> 00:57:01,420
you know,
1631
00:57:01,420 --> 00:57:04,000
just doing it and it gets easier over time.
1632
00:57:05,650 --> 00:57:06,820
That is huge.
1633
00:57:06,940 --> 00:57:07,810
And so,
1634
00:57:07,810 --> 00:57:08,380
so true.
1635
00:57:08,380 --> 00:57:08,620
I mean,
1636
00:57:08,620 --> 00:57:11,800
just think back to your first art show fair versus like
1637
00:57:11,800 --> 00:57:12,340
your third,
1638
00:57:12,640 --> 00:57:14,440
because I don't think any of us,
1639
00:57:14,650 --> 00:57:17,110
even if you're like a crazy extrovert,
1640
00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:20,280
think that like I had dropped me off in this crowd,
1641
00:57:20,310 --> 00:57:22,090
I'm just going to like small talk and get people to
1642
00:57:22,090 --> 00:57:23,650
like, come sign up for stuff all day.
1643
00:57:23,650 --> 00:57:24,940
Like, no,
1644
00:57:25,150 --> 00:57:27,820
unless you're a psychopath that is really not fun for any
1645
00:57:27,820 --> 00:57:28,270
of us,
1646
00:57:30,160 --> 00:57:32,980
but, but you just do it and then you realize,
1647
00:57:32,980 --> 00:57:34,300
okay, it's not so bad.
1648
00:57:34,300 --> 00:57:36,220
You start to get a little bit more comfortable with it.
1649
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:38,020
And you know,
1650
00:57:38,020 --> 00:57:40,900
I think that's the cause for a lot of the procrastination
1651
00:57:40,900 --> 00:57:44,050
and a lot of our business is that we don't know
1652
00:57:44,050 --> 00:57:44,710
how to do it,
1653
00:57:44,710 --> 00:57:47,200
or we're scared to do it for some reason or another.
1654
00:57:47,500 --> 00:57:50,020
And really the only way to get over either of those
1655
00:57:50,020 --> 00:57:50,590
is just,
1656
00:57:51,040 --> 00:57:51,670
just to do it.
1657
00:57:51,670 --> 00:57:54,160
And it gets easier as you do it more often Last
1658
00:57:54,180 --> 00:57:57,010
thought that I would like to leave people with is when
1659
00:57:57,010 --> 00:57:58,120
I moved in here,
1660
00:57:58,450 --> 00:58:01,210
I left a union job with,
1661
00:58:01,630 --> 00:58:02,170
you know,
1662
00:58:02,170 --> 00:58:04,600
a fair bit of well so-called security.
1663
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:07,210
I don't really necessarily feel that union jobs are that secure
1664
00:58:07,210 --> 00:58:07,660
these days,
1665
00:58:07,660 --> 00:58:08,350
but that's a whole,
1666
00:58:11,980 --> 00:58:14,890
A union job where I had 15 years seniority.
1667
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:17,110
I had a pension plan.
1668
00:58:17,140 --> 00:58:19,180
I had health benefits.
1669
00:58:19,180 --> 00:58:19,870
I was,
1670
00:58:19,900 --> 00:58:20,320
you know,
1671
00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:23,410
about a year away from five weeks of vacation time.
1672
00:58:24,040 --> 00:58:24,490
You know,
1673
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:28,690
I, a lot of people thought I was crazy right to
1674
00:58:28,690 --> 00:58:29,830
leave that job,
1675
00:58:31,750 --> 00:58:34,300
but it was also like killing my soul.
1676
00:58:36,070 --> 00:58:40,000
So I asked myself if I do this,
1677
00:58:40,030 --> 00:58:40,990
if I leave this job,
1678
00:58:41,020 --> 00:58:42,190
if I move out there,
1679
00:58:42,730 --> 00:58:44,890
like what is the worst that's going to happen?
1680
00:58:44,890 --> 00:58:46,180
If this doesn't work out,
1681
00:58:46,800 --> 00:58:47,110
I was like,
1682
00:58:47,110 --> 00:58:48,280
okay, if this doesn't work out,
1683
00:58:48,430 --> 00:58:50,860
I might end up working at the gas station down the
1684
00:58:50,860 --> 00:58:52,390
road, but you know what?
1685
00:58:52,840 --> 00:58:57,310
I'll be living in a beautiful place on my beautiful property
1686
00:58:57,310 --> 00:58:58,840
with my beautiful view.
1687
00:58:59,290 --> 00:59:02,920
I won't have the same kind of stress I have working
1688
00:59:02,920 --> 00:59:04,090
at the animal shelter.
1689
00:59:04,390 --> 00:59:06,580
I can just be happy working at a gas station in
1690
00:59:06,580 --> 00:59:07,510
a small community.
1691
00:59:07,760 --> 00:59:09,820
I have no problem with that.
1692
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:10,900
I was like,
1693
00:59:11,320 --> 00:59:12,400
am I going to die?
1694
00:59:12,910 --> 00:59:14,110
Like if I do this,
1695
00:59:15,580 --> 00:59:16,930
am I going to die?
1696
00:59:17,260 --> 00:59:19,090
No. And then I thought,
1697
00:59:19,810 --> 00:59:21,010
what if I stay?
1698
00:59:21,380 --> 00:59:23,300
What's the worst that can happen?
1699
00:59:23,870 --> 00:59:30,980
And I realized that I was way more afraid that five
1700
00:59:30,980 --> 00:59:31,940
years from now,
1701
00:59:31,970 --> 00:59:36,860
I would still be there than I was a virtually any
1702
00:59:36,860 --> 00:59:43,430
outcome I could imagine from taking the punch and Wow,
1703
00:59:43,700 --> 00:59:45,920
those are great questions.
1704
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:48,860
I often ask the what's the worst that can happen.
1705
00:59:49,520 --> 00:59:51,050
But I forget.
1706
00:59:51,170 --> 00:59:53,630
And I think a lot of other people forget to ask,
1707
00:59:53,660 --> 00:59:57,500
well, what is the cost of staying where I am?
1708
00:59:57,500 --> 00:59:58,310
Because as humans,
1709
00:59:58,310 --> 01:00:01,100
we, Right,
1710
01:00:01,460 --> 01:00:02,210
Right. Cause like,
1711
01:00:02,210 --> 01:00:02,960
as humans,
1712
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:08,150
we are comfortable staying in the uncomfortable for a long time
1713
01:00:08,150 --> 01:00:11,210
because the change can be scarier than something that is not
1714
01:00:11,210 --> 01:00:13,610
pleasurable, even because we know like the,
1715
01:00:13,910 --> 01:00:14,660
I forgot what the quote,
1716
01:00:14,660 --> 01:00:20,030
but basically like the known discomfort is better than the potential.
1717
01:00:20,030 --> 01:00:21,230
Like unknown,
1718
01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:23,150
even if it could be better.
1719
01:00:23,540 --> 01:00:24,530
So yeah.
1720
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:26,600
Asking yourself those two questions can help you get some,
1721
01:00:26,690 --> 01:00:28,310
some pretty big clarity pretty quickly.
1722
01:00:28,490 --> 01:00:30,830
Thank you again for sharing all this.
1723
01:00:30,860 --> 01:00:33,620
Tracy really appreciate your time.
1724
01:00:33,650 --> 01:00:34,790
And this conversation I think,
1725
01:00:34,790 --> 01:00:37,400
is going to help a lot of people before we go.
1726
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:39,620
Why don't you let people know where they can find you
1727
01:00:39,620 --> 01:00:42,260
though out there on those interwebs or if they're,
1728
01:00:42,260 --> 01:00:42,590
you know,
1729
01:00:42,590 --> 01:00:43,730
swing through Harvey,
1730
01:00:43,730 --> 01:00:44,420
new Brunswick,
1731
01:00:44,780 --> 01:00:46,550
the small Harvey Harvey,
1732
01:00:46,550 --> 01:00:47,180
the small one,
1733
01:00:50,690 --> 01:00:56,420
You can find me on Tracy Munson photography everywhere on Instagram,
1734
01:00:56,450 --> 01:00:57,920
on Facebook,
1735
01:00:58,610 --> 01:01:02,330
on other places that I don't really do anything except auto-post
1736
01:01:04,220 --> 01:01:06,950
perfect. Tracy wants to photography everywhere.
1737
01:01:07,670 --> 01:01:09,260
Awesome. Well thank you Tracy,
1738
01:01:09,260 --> 01:01:11,150
for being here with us really appreciate it.
1739
01:01:12,110 --> 01:01:15,830
Have a great holiday season and we will talk to you
1740
01:01:15,830 --> 01:01:19,610
soon. If you enjoy this podcast episode,
1741
01:01:19,610 --> 01:01:23,030
go ahead and take a screenshot of this episode on your
1742
01:01:23,030 --> 01:01:26,270
phone and post it up there on your Instagram stories and
1743
01:01:26,270 --> 01:01:29,780
be sure to tag us at hair of the dog academy.
1744
01:01:29,900 --> 01:01:33,440
And we would just love to see how you're listening and
1745
01:01:33,440 --> 01:01:34,580
a full disclosure.
1746
01:01:34,700 --> 01:01:38,120
Sometimes we just like to give away a little pet photographer,
1747
01:01:38,130 --> 01:01:41,990
swag in the form of hair of the dog t-shirts and
1748
01:01:41,990 --> 01:01:44,570
sweatshirts. So what are you waiting for?
1749
01:01:44,600 --> 01:01:47,690
Go ahead and share that screenshot of this episode.
1750
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:49,810
And don't forget to tag us at hair,
1751
01:01:49,830 --> 01:01:50,630
the dog academy.
1752
01:01:50,870 --> 01:01:51,890
And while you're there,
1753
01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:54,200
maybe you want to jump on over to our account and
1754
01:01:54,200 --> 01:01:57,170
see what we're up to on the gram would love to
1755
01:01:57,170 --> 01:01:57,830
connect with you.
1756
01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:00,650
Thanks for listening to the hair of the dog podcast.
1757
01:02:00,830 --> 01:02:03,110
This was episode number 118.
1758
01:02:03,380 --> 01:02:05,360
If you want to check out the show notes for access
1759
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:07,160
to any of the resources that we mentioned,
1760
01:02:07,430 --> 01:02:12,560
simply go to www.hairofthedogacademy.com/
1761
01:02:12,590 --> 01:02:14,660
1, 1 8.
1762
01:02:14,660 --> 01:02:17,900
Thank you for listening to this episode of hair of the
1763
01:02:18,410 --> 01:02:18,710
dog podcast.
1764
01:02:18,710 --> 01:02:20,220
If you enjoyed show,
1765
01:02:20,220 --> 01:02:21,510
please take a minute to leave a review.
1766
01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:22,620
And while you're there,
1767
01:02:22,770 --> 01:02:24,120
don't forget to subscribe.
1768
01:02:24,150 --> 01:02:26,400
So you don't miss our upcoming episodes.
1769
01:02:26,910 --> 01:02:27,630
One last thing,
1770
01:02:28,020 --> 01:02:30,690
if you are ready to dive into more resources,
1771
01:02:30,960 --> 01:02:36,360
head over to our [email protected].
1772
01:02:36,690 --> 01:02:39,900
Thanks for being a part of this pet photography community.
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Welcome!
I'm Nicole and I help portrait photographers to stop competing on price, sell without feeling pushy, and consistently increase sales to $2,000+ per session - which is the fastest path to a 6-figure business. My goal is to help you build a thriving business you love while earning the income you deserve.