Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast. I'm Nicole Begley. And today I am chatting with Natalia Brocchini to get some real talk about starting a business. Stay tuned.

Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast. If you're a pet photographer, ready to make more money and start living a life by your design, you've come to the right place. And now your host pet photographer, travel addicts, chocolate martini, calmness sewer, Nicole Begley.

Hey everybody. It's Nicole. Welcome back to the hair of the dog podcast. I am so excited to have you here today. We are going to be doing some real talk about starting a business with Natalia Brocchini and she is, uh, located in the Houston area and is just getting her business started. Thought it would be a great idea to talk to somebody that might be in your shoes. Somebody that is doing all the things, getting ready to start their business. She's run into a couple of roadblocks. She's been wanting to get this started for a few years and she's getting them really ready to get started right around the corner. I also may or may not have forced her to claim a date so that she has a date to work from to get her business off the ground and out into the world because she's so close and we talk about it on the podcast, but we, um, can get stuck in student mode. Cause it's pretty easy to keep learning and feeling like we're not quite ready. So sometimes she does have to just have to claim a date and do it. So I'm super excited for her new venture. Now, if you are new to this podcast, or even if you've been around for a while, you might be familiar with the hair of the dog Academy, which is our membership site that has, Oh my gosh, all the content and support that you need to improve your craft and grow your business. If you aren't ready for the Academy or you feel like you just want one or two classes, well, guess what? We also have the hair of the dog Academy shop. If you go to shop.hair of the dog academy.com and that is where you can purchase some of our Academy courses on their own as a standalone product that you pu rchased o nce and yo u h ave access to that particular product forever. Guess what? We are having a story introduction sale. You can save 30% off of all of the classes, all of the templates through Thursday evening, November 12th. So for the next two days, you can have some massive savings, not just on one product, but as many as you want. Of course, if you get in there and you say, Oh my gosh, I just want all of these products. This all looks fantastic. I want all of these products, plus the individualized support from the Academy. Maybe I can just join the Academy. Well, we can make that happen. Our next open enrollment period isn't until 2021. But if you want to email [email protected] and say, Hey, I just looked in the store and I really wish I could get into the Academy right now. We ll, we could make that happen. So let us know, check it out, go save 30%. No coupon needed. Uh, y ou'll see all the savings right there on the products. Um, a nd in the meantime, enjoy this podcast. Hey, everybody, Nicole here from hair of the dog and I'm here with Natalia Brocchini and she is a pet photographer down in the Houston, Texas area. Hi, to I t alia. Welcome to the podcast. Hey Ni cole.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me here.

Oh, yay. I'm so excited to have you here and Italia and I have bonded over the interwebs with our love of paid occasional palliate, occasional. Um, I can't say it properly because I'm not resilient. Um, but it's basically the best cheesy bread you'll ever eat in your whole entire life. And if you want a taste of pretty legit,[inaudible] my brain doesn't work as well. I just point and say yes, please. Um, you can check out Klasko they have, uh, some frozen ones there that actually tastes just like Brazil. They're so good. Um, so delicious. Uh, so anyway, so welcome to the podcast. Somehow. I always joke that I always end up turning the podcast. We talk about food at some point during it. So we got that out of the way early. Nice, nice. Um, but yeah, so welcome. You're from Houston now, but you're originally from Brazil. How long have you been in the States? Um, first we'll start with that,

Aside with that. So, uh, we first come to, came to the States in 2014 to visit my husband's relatives and that's where everything started because my husband had, um, a freelance job opportunity that time. And then fast forward, six years later here we are with a green card and a lot of priceless experiences and now live in Houston, Texas.

Nice, nice. Excellent. And then before that you were down in Rio and, um, did you have your pet photography business down there or is that something that you created just since moving?

No, not at all. Uh, actually I'll just go over a little bit of my background. So you guys, so, um, everything started in 2018, uh, the pet photography stuff, because that's when I received the green card and I was able to finally work in the U S so I've always loved animals. And even though I don't have one now, because this part is a bit different from the stories that a re usually h ere, because everybody started, well, I have a dog and, u h, I w ant to photograph them, try w ith them and everything, but I don't have one be cause w e love to travel. And because of that, we, we tr avel f or, fo r b ig periods of time. So it's hard to just leave the first ti me

Or, you know, I think that I had that same challenge when I started, I actually didn't have a dog till when did we get Zoe 2016? So I had six years of my business without a dog. We had cats, but, um, but no dog, cause I wasn't ready for that responsibility. And I kept saying that, you know, I have kids that, you know, need help go into the bathroom. I'm not bringing anything else into this house that needs help going to the bathroom until the kids are like older. I was like, no, nobody else needs any assistance of any kind. So it definitely is possible, but yeah, you feel like you're the only pet photographer on the planet that doesn't have their own dog. So I totally get that because I didn't have one.

And I start thinking, well, how I'm going to be able to work with what I like that, that's what I love animals. And my, my, my background that, it's a, I'm a graphic designer. I graduated in 2005. And uh, since then I've been working as a photo researcher actually. So photography in the beginning, wasn't much of my, of my thing. And, but my husband, he's a graphic designer as well and a photographer. So we were talking about how I was going to be able to, to join everything. And then we came up with this idea about the pet photography. Then I started, uh, research about it. And I've found you 5,000 Charlie breeds. And then my mind just blew away.

I have no idea he was a thing to make money with this. Right, right, right. Yeah. That's awesome.

The first step actually was not getting the camera and just looking for clients. I could have done that, but at first I wanted to learn how to deal with the animals, the dogs, especially. So I look for a job in a dog daycare and I worked there for five months and that's how I got my experience and different behaviors and personalities about the dogs. Of course. Yeah.

That's a great idea. Yeah. Did you have dogs growing up at all growing up? No, because even though my bed

Always loved animals and, and me too, but my mum wasn't much pets. Uh, I only had, I had my first dog that it's still with my dad in Brazil nowadays. Um, maybe it was 2010, I'd say so. Yeah, I did. I grew up, I didn't grew up with, with animals. I have two fish though.

I love it. I love it. Well, that's a great idea to go and work for, um, a little bit at someplace where you get a lot of dog behavior experience, a lot of experience looking at the different body languages of dogs and seeing how they interact and how you can interact with them. Um, really, that's just a, a great way to get a basis of dog behavior. So good job with that.

Very helpful. And then, uh, after I thought, well, I I've worked here enough. I have enough like basic experience to start something. Then I started the study part. That's when I start to, uh, going after all the, the free content that's out there because that's all we can do in the beginning.

Right. We just,

We can, we, we just buy some classes and just go from there, learning and learning.

I

Dove into the learning process with you guys.

That's awesome. I love it. So that was 2018 that you started the learning or do you start that a little bit before? No. No. He wants to tell you that that's an 18. Okay, perfect.

Beginning of 2000, the first part of 2018, I was working as the canine coach at the dog daycare. And then the second part I started, uh, studying and learning. And, uh, my husband, like I said, he's a photographer as well. And he is like my, my assistant as well. So his full support, I was able to start the leader study a little bit before having to make money of it. Yeah. So, but then, uh, life hits and, and I had a half problem, uh, in the end of 2018 and I had, I had to stop everything and just take care of it. And he went by like another six months and I could go back to like developing the business, but then, uh, I had another opportunity. It was not, it was life hitting again, but it was a good opportunity. We are able to go to Europe for some months and leave. Yeah. And I thought, well, I could just let it go because I really need to begin my business. Cause it's been so long, but I'm trying. Uh, but it was a very good opportunity. So I thought I could develop a project, a photography volunteer project where I, the name was what a dog date, because I think like dog equals happiness.

Yeah. I love it. Yeah. So the,

There was to, uh, give the dogs in the shelters, our cats, they abandoned the pets a very happy day. So I would go to the shelter or for my time and say, Hey, can I, can I get one of your p aths? Like he can be the face of the shelter, you know, a nd k id represents the place. So I'm g oing t o take him or I can spend the day here. We're going to play. I'm not just g oing t o photograph him. You know, I wanted to go there and I play with him and give him a lot of b elly birds.

That's kind of green day,

Of course, photograph everything. And then the results of the day would be a lot of, uh, beautiful photo though that I gave to the shelters so they can share with the local community and like, just get the word out about it.

Yeah. That's fantastic. That's a great idea. I was able

To do that in four different countries. Four.

That's awesome. How long were you guys over in Europe? Six, seven months. Oh, nice. And then you got to travel around quite a bit when you were there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's fantastic.

Had the possibility. I look at four shelters and try to, to do the project them because this way I was practicing always the photography and growing my, my study part.

Yep. Yeah, no, that's brilliant. And really one of the great things about this business too, is, u m, I always like to say that our photography business is, u h, a lifestyle business really, that we create to, u m, you know, serve the lifestyle that we want to live. And when things come up that we either have opportunities to travel, or as you mentioned, like a health issue that we need to take care of. I mean, it's so nice that we have a business that we're able to basically kind of turn on and turn off. And even if you're, you know, anxious to build it i nto open it, like there's always things you can be working on in the background. You can always be learning. You can always be practicing your craft. You can be starting to plan the building blocks of your business, even if you're not ready to release it to the world. So yeah, I think that was a great decision in a way to, to use that time wisely. U m,

Let's put it towards what I went through. Exactly. You stop everything just because of a health problem or because of a, I don't know of a new opportunity, you can try to mix things and just go with the flow.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So when did you guys get back from Europe?

We got back, uh, we went to Brazil to see family and friends for a month that that wasn't the same number. And then we come back to the USA March.

Gotcha. Oh right. And then it was COVID

Gratitude. That's a funny thing because once again, for the second or third time I was ready to start my business finally. Right. Then we'll have this COVID happen. So yeah. Everything, what can I do now? Am I going to stop everything again or just way? Cause I, it gets frustrating at some point, but I focus on the business side. So my husband is also held helping me as a graphic designer to develop the website, all the marketing, uh, strategic to do the business itself. And then, um, I'm now consuming another type of content, like more, I think your side of the content because Charlotte helped me like immensely about the Photoshop craft, the craft. And of course you have a lot of content on that, but I, I really love how you talk about business And had there also Heather too. Nice.

Nice. Excellent. Um, so yeah, so, uh, you came back and you wanted to get started in March. So what's the status of your business right now? Is it, is it ready? Is it open for business or are you finishing touches? What's going on?

I would say I'm finishing touches because like I say, we are working on the website and I want to get to have at least the website ready because I think I'm ready. I'm not at say we never think we're a hundred percent ready. And that's one of the c hallenge that I went through b ecause I wanted to be a hundred percent ready as a perfectionist. And it's hard b ecause like, as a p erfection is, you're always working hard to, t o get everything ready, but then you get so tired, then you can have to fight to not procrastinate.

Yes. Uh, yes, a hundred percent. And you know, spoiler alert. You're never going to feel like your business is totally done. You're never going to feel like it's totally ready. You're never going to feel like you're totally ready. Um, so I think one of the hardest things to do is to move out of student mode and get into business owner moving forward mode. And we just have to know that, okay, there's g oing t o be some mistakes that maybe y ou're going to be made and that's okay b ecause I'll learn from those mistakes. And then we can start again with more information and move forward really more quickly once you start getting out there and making the mistakes on super excited for you to start doing that.

Thank you. Yeah. That's another funny thing because the first time that I heard the sentence that you just say, like, you have to get out of the study mode or something like that from you and was like, wait a minute, I'm learning something from her, but that she wants me to stop stuff. Right, right. Cause I wasn't at such a comfort zone because I love to study and we lost, but some at some point you have to just stop and do it. So I think I'm right there. So, uh, I'm not looking for clients exactly. Because like I said, I want my, my website done. But as soon as we finished that, I'm going to put my face out there.

Now, what, um, what is the minimum viable website that you can have to get that website done and released to the public ASAP?

Yeah. That's, that's the thing. Uh, I'm aware that I, I don't have, I can't be too a perfectionist with my website as well, so I

Update it. You can always update

It. That's true. I, I know I'm going to do like the, I wouldn't say the basic because I can't, but the medium, a medium website. So I don't know, four or five sessions with the pricey. Well, uh, extra teacher. So

Structure a pricing structure. Yeah.

Yeah. This kind of stuff, because I already have some portfolios, photos that I think I'm good to be green with and just go on from there.

Awesome. Do you have your pricing all situated? Do you know what you're going to do and what you're going to offer and all that?

Uh, I have an idea of what the, what are the products that I like in my notes that I should offer, uh, the products that I'm really passionate about because I think it's going to be easier to sell because I want to do IPS. I'm not, I don't want to go to the digital files. I would like to start IPS right away because of you.

Yeah. IPS, for those of you guys at home, um, that maybe don't know is in-person sales and yeah, I am a big believer. I mean, while it is possible to have a profitable business with online sales, I am a big believer that in-person sales not only equates to larger sales for your business, but it also serves our client in a better, more serviceable manner. Like we are, we're giving them a better experience when we're able to help them determine exactly how they want to enjoy their images. And you know, that doesn't mean that we don't sell digital files unless you don't want to sell digital files. You know, I personally love to have digital files available as an add-on basically as a yeah. Or as a bonus when I have my clients have already purchased all the things that I want them to purchase, I'm happy to gift them with certain things. So, yeah. So let's, I, we're turning this around this little interview and now we're going to turn into a coaching session here where we're going to have a date of your public lunch and you're going to be out there on all of the pet photography world, hair of the dog podcast with a date in mind for your lunch. So what, uh, what date do you have in mind that your website will be ready and you'll be actively seeking that first client? Oh my go. You didn't know, you didn't know, this is what you were signing up for. Did you?

That's good because that's how you, you had inshallah, you just guys push me to do things I wasn't, uh, really to do as far as like, let's say just an example. I had the classes with, uh, Heather the last challenge. And then the first time that I, I record records alive.

Yeah. Recorded alive. Yeah. Yeah.

Like super open was only in the group, but it wasn't. Yeah.

Oh, it's huge. And doing that the first time is yeah. Very can be very stressful. Yeah.

The, the, um, the social, uh, social media thing, it's hard for me because I'm not like, it's not my thing. Like to just go into YouTube and just stop by it. Like it's completely out of my comfort zone. So I'll have to work on that. I think. Yeah.

Well, it's also one of those things, the more that you do it, the easier it gets. Like I know when I first started doing Facebook lives and the hair of the dog group, i t was like, Oh, am I going to say, I hope I don't mess this up now. It's just like, f rom l ife, whatever I know I'm going to mess up here. And there it is what it is, but people still, people still connect with you and they want to see you. And it's just, things become easier. Same thing as, you know, practicing your craft. The first couple o f times you're shooting i n m anual, it's hard. And you're thinking about all these things, but then all of a sudden it clicks and then you can start on other things and you know, same thing with like driving a car the first time you drive. You're like, Oh my gosh, okay, wait, this is the gas and this is the turn signal. And wait, where is this? And where are the wipers? But then a fter y ou get used to it, it's just, you know, you drove 10 minutes away and you're like, I don't remember driving here. So

Another big challenge that I've been through that I would like to, to point out was the English. Cause, uh, yeah. Some not to feel, sorry about myself. There's another boy, but it's just that sometimes we just don't realize how difficult it is to, to learn another language. And I can't communicate, but you know, uh, grammar and, uh, Larry, I'm not like totally fluent. So it's hard that it's a big deal when you're trying to put yourself out there and talking to people and communicate, especially clients. That's something that I always think about. Cause I I'm trying to say the perfect sentence when in the end you just have to communicate. Right.

Right. Well, I think you sound great and your English is certainly better than my Portuguese and I'm actually trying to learn Italian now. And um, yeah, no, it's hard. And it gets, at least for me too, you get to the point where you're like, I can see the words and I can understand a written sentence. Um, but uh, recall it without, you know, in the midst of talking and, and you know, you want to save, you're like, how the heck do I say that? I mean, that's really, really hard, but I think a lot of times with that we get so self-conscious about it. And we get so in our head of, Oh my gosh, what's this person going to think. But I think back to all the people that I know that are, you know, learning a second language and like you, and like my stepbrothers wife, who's English as their second language. And like on all these people that I talked to that English is not their first language, like never in a million years, have I ever looked at them and been like, I can't believe that they messed that piece of grammar up. Like I find it like really endearing. Um, my brothers, uh, we were at a restaurant and she was like, Oh, I want to get what's it called a dog baggy, you know, sort of a doggy bag. And i t was just like, O h, i t's just so cute. So we're like, Oh, talk b aggy d ay. U m, but like, I, you know, I, I think that we just stress about that so much more than anybody else does because I truly don't think anyone is looking at someone and you know, if they're messing up some grammar, I mean, English is my first language and I still mess up the grammar. So yeah. So don't, don't worry about that and make sure, like, just kind of reframe that in your head that no one's judging you on that. And if they are, u m, they're certainly not going to be a client that we want anyway. So

It's to another kind of judgments that we do when like we have our photos and then we think, well, is the client going to life? I w I, this goes a lot of, a lot through my head when I imagine like my first IPS or I imagined my photo session with the first client and I see, am I, are they gonna see value on what I'm showing to them? Do they know how it work? How much work I put into it.

Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. So through a beginner's head, yes. Spoiler alert that goes through everybody's head. But another way to reframe that as well is, you know, if you're showing your work on your website and what you created is in line with your work, then they're going to love it because that's what they're expecting. That's what they hired you for. And of course, we all have sessions that don't go as well as we had hoped that aren't our best work, but the clients still love them. And if something goes drastically wrong, you know, we're not photographing weddings so we can fix it. We can reshoot if we need to. But, um, I see a lot of photographers rush to offer a reshoot when there's really absolutely no reason that they, you know, they've still created beautiful work for their clients, but they just felt like it wasn't their best work. And we're just, we're just too hard on ourselves about that. You know, I like to look at it and put it through the, is it sellable? Is it sellable matrix? So asking yourself these questions for, is it sellable? Is it in focus? Is the white balance? Correct. And is the exposure correct? Like, Oh, those things are there, it's sellable and we can then improve our craft always of course. But yeah, we get really hard on ourselves on that. Yeah.

Then it hits the consistency. Right. Is that something that I always think about like having, uh, am I, am I going to be able to go there in the, my first photo session and have a good amount of photos that I worth of a client's gallery? Like, am I, do I have the, the, how do I say

In a variety? The variety. Yeah.

Yes,

Yeah, yeah. The image is going to be consistent enough. You're right. Um, yeah. You know, and again, that comes from the confidence comes from the competent. So the more that you're able to get out and shoot the more that, um, you know, you're able to feel confident that wherever you go, you're going to be able to make something work. I definitely recommend if you're going to be shooting in a new location and you're a little bit nervous about it, of checking out that location, you know, sometime before the session at that same time of day of going there and seeing the light and maybe taking a couple of test shots, even with the stuffed animal or your bag or whatever. Um, yeah. So that way, when you show up for the session, you can be like, okay, I got this. I've already been here. Yeah.

The idea from you guys again, uh, with a stuff at animal and just going out, uh, trying new new places, look at the line, look at the framing, look at all the stuff that, that can go stuff with the stuff animal. Yeah. And it's been, it's been really helpful, especially to locations County, so we can like program what we're going to do, uh, when the real session comes. Yeah.

And yeah, it's just so nice too. That way you can focus on those other questions that you have of the light and the lens and the composition. And you don't have to worry about dog behavior and keeping the dog's attention and all those things, because there's a lot that we have to remember when, when we start actually photographing dogs. So it's nice to be able to break those apart.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. If I, what if I have to recommend something for another beginners like me, I'd say get a stuffed animal and go out there because we've been trying to do like with a dog's friend and they are alive of course, but it's all of the problems that can happen. They will have at the same time and you're not ready for it because you're still learning and they may feel, may find yourself overwhelmed with everything he made. Can I do it? Yes, you can. But you need to break apart. Like the problems, like gather the technical problems for a sake of stuff, animal and try everything. And then when you get a part ready and then maybe you can go back to photographing the dogs, friends, or, and yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Do you find yourself? Cause I know I did. When I was starting feeling like you had to keep moving really fast during the photo session or your client's going to be like, Oh see, she doesn't really know what she's doing because she's not still moving fast.

Absolutely. I always think about it. Yeah. I always think about it that like they looking at me, she just has no idea.

Yeah. Yeah. It's totally understand. Um, I, I went through that too. I think everybody does. So all of you guys that are early in your journey, breathe, just go out to your session and breathe and you know, our dogs need a break sometimes too. So I will often in the middle of the session, say, okay, hang out here for a second. I'm going to go check out the light over here. And I can just walk over there for a minute and see if I wanted to shoot over there. You can just take a breath. You can walk over there. If you have like, you know, cheat sheet images on your phone or on the back of your camera. So if you want to know what other poses or what other images to try to capture, you can check them out over there where your client's not looking at you. So, you know, nobody is expecting you to be working through your whole session, like at a breakneck pace, never taking a break except for us. We're the only ones that expect that. So yeah.

Can I ask you, do you, when you go to, to your session, your quiet session, do you have like a, say 15 images there, you know, you're going to take, and then you get creative out of that or do you get you, you create everything as soon as you get to the place.

I mean, I have a general,

It's not that I do it the same order, but I do have a general like list of shots that I often try to create. And then of course the rest is going to depend on our location, the dogs, um, comfort level dog's behavior, how many people or dogs I have for the session and then what, what my client was looking for, because part of the pre-consultation process, I do have them tell me what some of their favorite images from my website are. I don't want them going to Pinterest and sending me other photographers work. I want them to look at my work and tell me what they love about that so that I can make sure that I create something similar for them. But yeah, like my general kind of workflow though, is I try to do group shots first. Like if, if the owners are coming and they want to be an images as well, I'll do a kind of traditional, um, everybody looking at the camera shot or two, and then I'll try to do the images of the people with the dogs, like try to get all of those done early. So that way, you know, you don't have to worry about your hair anymore. You know, they could put on the comfy pair of shoes, they, they, they can then kind of relax a little because they know they're part of it is over because people can sometimes get a little bit nervous about being on the other side of the camera. Yeah. And then the other shot though, shot that I always do with the dogs first, as I try to do the group shot first, because that's when all of my noises and everything are still the most novel. And I find it the easiest to get all the dogs in the image at attention and the least likelihood of me having to do any sort of swaps of head spots and things where I can't get the attention of one of the dogs, because then when I'm doing the individual images of the dogs a little bit later, I can pull out some different noises and things for them. Yeah. I find, I like to get the group stuff done first and then I kind of work through the other things and you know, it also depends on our location. Yeah. A lot of times we'll be moving around to some different areas. I mean, still, usually walking, we usually just park once and then might walk to a couple locations that are, I'd say they're all within a quarter of a mile. They're all pretty close. So, you know, it just depends where we're going when for kind of where, what shots that I might typically do at each of those locations. So

Interesting. Yeah. I was listened to the podcast this morning. Um, I forgot her name, but she was talking about the new market that she moved.

Alison sham, Ralph. Yeah. Yeah.

So she said something about it in the beginning, she, she would go to three locations in three hours, like, but then you noticed that it was more productive to, to reduce it and like program everything beforehand and the shooting them. I mean the photos that you want to capture.

Yup. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times. And it depends on your working too. I tend to work pretty quickly. I mean, my sessions are usually an hour and a half at the most, you know? So it just, it just depends on, there's no right or wrong. Some people like to go to lots of different locations. I just go to one, you know, there's, it's however we want to build our businesses, which is, which is really just a great thing. But w hen you've never answered my question, y eah. We're not going to stop this podcast until I get a date from, you k now, I know,

Uh, I don't have a date, but I can promise that it's going to be as soon as possible. I don't care, whatever heats me this time. I'm going to do it. Yeah,

Yeah, yeah. I don't care. What are the, what are the last steps that you need to take care of before you're ready to go website, finalized pricing? Anything else?

Basically just the side, uh, the sessions of the website. Cause then you got the facts, whatever I'm on, I'm on the right there because I have a pretty good idea. Cause uh, all this year is like the, the last two years that I've been studying, I've been working on that. So I have a lot of notes. I want to say how I'm going to show myself. U m, I've b een working with, u h, cooperating. I mean, w e're studying about copywriting. I didn't even know exist before. Yeah. This kind of stuff. I just need to organize the t exts and u m, select the portfolio photos and y eah, l et's put my husband to work.

End of November. You should be ready to go for December 1st. So I'm just going to throw that out. There is that December 1st target date. Okay. So I'm going through this, this whole process. What has been, you know, cause I know it's not all like, you know, puppy dogs and rainbows and sunshine. What has been some of the most challenging pieces of, of this adventure?

Um, talking about everything, like all the,

Yeah. Of just a building, you're getting your business ready to go. And this whole pet photography journey, I'd say feeling ready,

Uh, feeling ready regarding, uh, the technique. Like I see, I can see my photos Camy out of the camera, the way that I wanted them to be like, because because of my photo retouch background, it was kind of easing the beginning because the first photos they are nightmare. Right. We hate them all because I had those, this knowledge with Photoshop and Lightroom, since the beginning, I was able to save some and then I can fix this focus. I can fix this here and fix this there. But then in some photos I ended up, uh, having to work on that for four hours and just like, that's a Frankenstein, it's like 30 layers and the Photoshop, I was like, that's not viable. That's not possible. So, uh, Getty getting the consistency that I was talking about, getting my photos out of the camera as ready as possible. So I can have, I loved, I loved the post production. Don't get me wrong. I love it. That's the one of the best part for me.

You don't want to be. Yeah. You don't want to be spending time doing post-production work that could have been done on camera. I get that. Do you want me to create a post-production? Yeah.

Well the basics where you can, you can work on your photos in the camera, like the framing, the focus, the life balance and all kind of stuff. So this being my biggest challenge that I'm working with and uh, let's say, yeah, that's it. And um, finally get my first client, like see how it's going to be like that. I don't know. Not a family, not a friend, a stranger that wants to pay me for my work. Yeah.

Yep. Well, for the shooting real quick, there's really no shortcut in that creating consistency there. I mean, we just need to take a lot of photos and the faster you take a lot of photos, the faster you're going to get through that phase. So it sounds like you're well on your way past that phase, which is awesome. And then for getting your first clients, do you have a plan for that yet?

Uh, not really, but I just, uh, signed the membership, uh, from togs in business. Okay. Yeah. I think she's gonna help me a lot with, um, with the beast, the marketing photography marketing part. Yeah. Perfect.

Yeah, definitely utilize the fact that, you know, you have a new website once it's up and, you know, share that with the world. Um, one of my favorite things i s in the Academy is, u m, charitable m arketing. S o partnering with rescues or charities, it doesn't even have to be a dog rescue. It can be a non dog charity where you offer sessions to their followers and a portion of the session fee gets donated back to the charity. So the charity promotes you, the followers love you c ause you're helping the charity. You raise money for the charity, you get business. I mean, it's a, win-win all the way around. So that's one of my favorites and you can catch that. I mean, there's just so many charities to work with there.

Sorry. Yeah.

There's also just nothing wrong with like having an introductory specials to like, you know, where your pricing needs to be to be profitable. But you know, the first few clients, it's, there's nothing wrong with having introductory pricing and packaging, which is really just to help you gain confidence, getting those first clients do in your first few in-person sales, but then they still know the value of what they have received. So it's not like they're walking away saying, Hey, I got a great experience. And she was really cheap. Um, you know, they might've gotten a good deal on something that was very valuable, but they at least know the value of that.

That's true. And maybe about the charity part, I could just go on and continue by project. The volunteer one that I did, I have this idea of continuing here actually started here in Houston. Like the, how t o say the first one, it wasn't hi p a nd it was fa irly n ice. So maybe I can just mix everything and continue the project and put my name out.

Awesome. I love it. I love it. That's super fun. Fantastic. So do you have anything to share as we wrap up here, just like if you had one piece of advice for all the photographers out there, pet photographers new on their journey, just getting started and wanting to build their business. What piece of advice would you have for them?

I think a good advice is to mix in my opinion, the study part and the hands-on part. So you don't have to do either one or another. If you have time to study and you d on't, don't have to do that to pay bills. That's f ine. That's fantastic. Just go study how many t ime you want, but at some point, just go out there and, and start everything because I got caught in the study part because I, I could fortunately, but at some point I'd just have to go out there. So just go out there, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, practice, and then h ave your first client and go from there. You're d oing great.

Yes. I love it. I love it. Natalia, thank you so much for being here with us. And that was a great piece of advice for everyone. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I mean the more, the faster you can get your hands doing things the faster you're going to move forward from there because, um, you know, we can study all day long, but until we actually put it into practice, we don't get the feedback to know if we're on the right track or if we need to tweak things. Um, and then we're able to, to build our dream business faster, the more that we just get out there and do it. So looking forward and I'm looking forward to hearing on December 1st, I'm going to put it on my calendar and I might just be emailing you and checking in

Nicole. I want to thank you so much for the opportunity and yeah, I'm just going to keep following. You guys want to hear from me.

I love it. That's perfect. Go ahead. And before we leave though, and tell everyone where they can find you and follow your journey online, once that website's up

Now among just on Instagram and snap Talia burkini, I'm sure I can spell it here, but it's easier down there. I'll put it in the show notes. So for now, I mean Instagram, but soon I'm going to have my website and all the social media ready. So it's going to be under Natalia Brocchini pet photography for sure.

Perfect. Perfect. Well, thanks so much for being here with us and it was great to revisit some of the gosh the universal challenges we all have when we are, um, early in little pet photography business journey. And thanks so much for sharing them with us. Absolutely. Nicole, thank you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of hair of the dog podcast. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to leave a review. And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe. So you don't miss our upcoming episodes on last thing, if you are ready to dive into more resources, head over to our [email protected]. Thanks for being a part of this pet photography community.