Speaker 1: 0:52 

Welcome to episode eight of the hair of the dog podcast. Today we're talking with Mark Moffitt from dirty dog photography based in Seattle, Washington, and we're going to be talking all about collaborations and how the collaborations that she has been doing have brought so much magic in her business and her life. I can't wait to dig into this one with you.

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 connoisseur, Nicole Begley.

Hi everybody. Nicole here from hair of the dog and I'm here with Mark Muffet from dirty doc photography based in Seattle and we are going to be talking all about how she built her incredible business, really based on some collaborations and following what was in her heart. And I am so excited for this conversation. So Marco, welcome to the hair of the dog podcast. I'm so excited that you're here

so much, Nicole. I am so grateful.

It's going to be, it's going to be incredible. A little random aside for all our listeners. We had started our conversation or a good 10, 12 minutes in and it was amazing and I realized I'd never hit record. So I'm Erica and it's just the universe and it's just the universe saying, Hey, you know what, this isn't really good stuff and it's going to be even better. Oh my gosh. So thank you for hanging out with me and my cat is crawling all over my lap. All right, goodbye. Okay, good thing it's pet photographers and they don't mind. Anyway. Tell us, Martha about, I guess about your business, what you've been building in Seattle and just a little bit about your background.

Yeah, so I, as I said, I'm based in Seattle. I do pet photography, mostly dogs, cats and horses. But also, you know, anybody else who comes my way, I love them all. Yep. Um, so I took the leap to go full time three years ago in 2017 I had been doing everything very part time, working part time job cause it's expensive here in Seattle to live. Um, yeah. Yeah. I just had decided that I didn't want to work for anybody else anymore. I wanted to follow my dream and give it my all.

That's awesome. Yeah. I feel like that's the curse of all of us. Once we start to do this and we're like, Oh, I'm working for myself, we've become completely unemployable that, um, there's no chance we can go back and work for anybody else again because the freedom and just really joy of working on your own projects just can't be touched by really just about anything else.

Yeah. And there's something about the energy that we put out, like I'm definitely really good at either working on someone else's dream or working on mine. It's just I dedicate myself to the things that I'm passionate about. I didn't realize how more I would work working for myself. I worked for other people, but it's also, I also love, I love having my own business so much that I don't want to stop.

Yeah. I, I guess guilty guilty is like Saturday morning I wake up, nobody's up yet. I'm like, Oh, I'm just going to sneak into my office. I have a really, really hard time, um, shutting down when I'm at home, which is one reason I like to get away. I know you just had an incredible vacation, you're in our elevate program and you were like, Oh my gosh guys, what can I, can I go? Uh, I mean when you were going to go, but you were stressed out about leaving, like it's going to be okay. And then you went and you're relaxed and you know, you come back with this new found sense of excitement and recharge energy, which for me, I, I have to leave to get to that point because I'm at home. It's like my office is right there and I can just sneak in for a little bit. So I never really turn it off. And that's because I love what I do. So it's, it's really hard and stepping away is so critical and so important. Yeah, I definitely underestimated the magic of vacation. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about like, so you've, you said you've been doing your business part time for a long time before you went full time, which was just a few years ago in 2017 when you started your business, where you doing products, where you're doing more, all inclusive, what, what did it look like at the beginning?

So back before 2017? Yeah. Yeah. So I graduated photography school in 2007 and they don't really teach you how to run a business in art school. Not at least like a couple of times I did have a class that was about writing a business plan, but really that doesn't like anyone. Yeah. I think I still had the notebook that that was in until like last year I went through and Marie Kondo all, um, out out, no, I was for sure doing, giving discs of images away. Never even crossed my mind that, you know, my business could do better. Um, and I Def, I also had a lot of fears. I didn't at the time, I actually was in a relationship with somebody who didn't believe that I could be successful. And so that weighed on me a lot and I was in my early twenties it's, you know, not, I hadn't shoved around, I hadn't found my power yet. And then I S I did, you know, years later, new relationship, moved to Seattle, started doing online galleries because I was like, Hey, I should actually be providing some sort of printed materials for clients. But definitely was realizing that I was missing out on actually supporting my clients in, in those selections. And then I also think I had clients print directly from their galleries, just screenshot, not to steal the images, but to, they printed them to, to see them bigger. So they were actually doing in person sales with themselves was like, wait a, I should be doing that. It's not serving you or me. Yeah. Yeah. So in 2017 when I took that leap, I really just started over and decided, Hey, I'm building my business in this way. Just had a beginner mindset and was like, let's, you know, let's just pretend like I know nothing and learn everything that I need to. Absolutely. That's such a good way to look at that. And you know, I feel like we never stop learning no matter what we're doing. And it's, it's so important to be open, even if you've been doing something a certain way for years, just to be open to, Oh, there's another possibility there. Like is there something there for me? You don't have to do anything with it. But to be open to seeing the other, the other ways of doing things and just sitting with it and seeing if it's the right way for you. So when you change, did you go cold Turkey or did you like, okay, I'll start trying to get some people or did you just say, Nope, we're totally changing how we do things totally changed. It was essentially a brand new business because I, I had a vision for what I wanted to create and I knew it was going to take time. So I gave myself that time to, to learn and I went like new on everything. The universe handed me the opportunity to join a business networking group, which I had no idea that these things even existed. I actually had had my artwork, I have dog portraits on campuses that I hang around the city at times and I had some up at an art walk in Seattle neighborhoods and a member of my chapter that I am now in, um, she was in the building. She came and talked to me about my work and was very moved by my passion and she was like, Hey, you should come to my group of business networkers. I think they'd love to meet you. And I was like, Oh, that sounds like something I should do. And I did. And within five minutes I was like, ah, I need to be here that way I know I'm still, I love to tell the story because it's just like when you, you put yourself out there and you, the first step to any for any of this is believing in yourself. Because I believed in myself and I had my artwork hanging and I was like, I will talk to anybody who comes up to you. And that's how it happened. And I'm now the president of that business networking group. It's been really a huge, huge, huge part of the growth of my business because I've been able to, you know, go in and talk to people about the work that I do and in all of the dreams I have and all of the, the vision and the things that I'm building. And every week they're the first people who get to hear about this stuff. And there it's a room full of people who are not in the photography industry. So they know nothing. I mean the people in the room didn't even know that that photography was a thing. So I hate them and get priceless feedback on, on things and it's, it's really been huge for me. And interesting. What did they think of? Priceless cause generally people that don't know our industry see our price list a little bit of shock. So how did that go? Yeah. So I think because a lot of them are business owners, they understood there is a, we do have a people photographer who does in-person sales and who's nominal. So they already were familiar with how portrait photography works. But you know, a lot of my members have hired me to photograph their pets and the thing is in the, we get to do eight minute presentations and that's the thing that people always, they look forward to mind but they always are scared because usually I make them cry because my, my work is very emotional. My, my why behind the things that I do is very emotional and I'm not afraid to hit get right to the point of I do this work because our pets don't stay with us long enough. And every single person in that room has experienced the love and the loss of animals and their life and they got it right away. And that's, that was the thing that has helped me with, you know, being able to talk to people who are pet owners but are not pet photographers, has been absolutely amazing.

That's incredible. And I'm sure it helps you dial in your messaging of, of sharing what you do because we're so close to what we do. And of course we know and like our family knows and you know, people know your pet photographer. Okay, but do we really know how to communicate what it is we do, why we do it, why, like what the benefit of our clients hiring us is like there's, there's so much messaging there that people just kind of gloss over and it's so critical to our business.

Yeah. In that first year I had this moment of a transition where I had done my first eight minute presentation and it really kind of just went through the, what the process is like hiring me and, and all of that, um, and showed some of my work. And then between then and my next presentation, I had this realization of, Oh wait, this isn't about me. Everything I'm doing, it's not about me. It's about the people I'm doing this for. And I had this huge shift in my messaging across the board. And so my next presentation was all about why I do what I do and who I do it for. And really connecting to that. And that was like the whole entire room was just a mess because they got it and I was like, Oh, this felt so good. It was a huge breakthrough for me. And then I was able to take that and use it everywhere. Um, and it, and it just, and there was something about when you get to that point where you realize, okay, yes, I'm an artist and I'm creating something beautiful, but it isn't about me. It's about the people I'm creating it for. That takes, it takes a certain type of pressure off.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's really the key to for any, any business, any thing that we're going after is trying to look at it the bigger picture of why are you actually doing this and making it bigger than yourself. Like you mentioned that before and we were talking that I forgot to record you. You are focused on building something bigger than yourself, which I think is really the key, the key ingredient for anything that than anyone wants to build and grow and, and create this experience that you know is so aligned with like your soul and what you want to, that it has to be about more than just you because of his, about you. It stays small, but if you make it about others and you make it about what you can do for your community or you know, your clients that the adoptable animals, whatever, that then it takes on a life of its own and it does become bigger than you.

Yeah. And then more people want to be a part of it. Um, and then yeah,

tracks other people in because they're like, this is amazing. So I not want to be part of it.

Yeah. And I think for me, from the very beginning, knowing that I was building something bigger than myself and sticking to staying true to that vision, that's been the biggest thing for me has been staying true to my vision. Even when people around me who know nothing about what, what it takes to do this, when they were like, you're crazy. What is this? Why aren't you just, why don't you just go photograph some weddings and make some money? And, and I'm like, cool. Yeah, I'll just stay over here and do what I'm doing. And that's been the thing too is anytime I start getting anxious about what other people are doing or what other people think I should be doing, I just say just keep doing what.

Yeah, yeah. Just stay in your lane of where, where you want to focus. It doesn't matter when anybody else is doing, you'll find the client love what you do. It's a Marco with your business. When you are going from, you know, your, your pre 2017 kind of online gallery thing to changing your business over to being in person sales boutique business. Um, I know one of the things you're doing that is absolutely killing it is all the collaboration that you're doing in your community. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing and, and how you found what really lights you up?

Yeah. So all of my collaborations have to do with my original vision and wanting to build my business with my community and giving back in mind. Um, and it has grown into something that I did not imagine it would. It's, it's way cooler than I could ever imagine. But it started with wanting to give back in a way that was different than what I was seeing. Um, I, there's so much value in going in and, and photographing adoptable animals at shelters. Volunteer photographers are so incredibly important. I knew that I wanted to do something a little bit bigger than that. I wanted to have a little bit more power. I dunno if power is the right word, but maybe it is. Um,

just wanted to do something that was more aligned with exactly how you wanted to do it maybe. Yeah.

Yeah. Just, I had this, I felt this, this little fire within me that was like saying you can, you can build something a little bit. Yeah. That'll, that'll help more people. And more animals. Um, and I, I ended up doing some research. I also wanted to be mindful of what other photographers were doing and not interfere with their work. Respect is a very big thing for me

and there's definitely room for all of us, but yeah, absolutely we want to be and

nice human. Um, and so I found this program that was highlighting harder to adopt animals and I saw that they didn't have a consistent photographer. What they were doing is they actually had the, the shelters were sending them photos and sometimes they were by, they were created by professional photographers. Other times it was just a shelter photo. And so I just reached out and said, Hey, I love what you guys are doing. I'd love to be a part of it. I'm a pet photographer and blah, blah, blah. And at the time they were like, well, we don't really need anyone right now but I'll, we'll put you on the list to reach out if we, if anything changes. And, and I was like, awesome. And then several months later they needed some help at an event. So I went and I volunteered and I photographed the event and then um, built a relationship with the executive director and got together, had had coffee and just sort of told them, Hey, here are my ideas, here's what I do. And she was onboard and a together we reshaped how we did things. We actually ended up doing every Tuesday going into the shelters and doing a professional photo session with the featured pet and also recording it, doing it on Facebook live. And so what I wanted to do was create a consistent look for the program. And the program was also partnered with local local news media. Oh, okay. Nice. And so they, the news media came in and they would do an interview to get more information about the pet and is it just sort of grew and I was with them for a couple of years, but then there was a change in leadership there, which then meant to change in vision on their there and things sort of just fell apart in certain ways. And I, myself and another media partner decided that we wanted to stay true to the vision of what we had in the potential in the program. And we were the ones who are actually doing all of the work. So we had built the relationships with the shelters and they trusted us. So we decided we were going to launch our own program and we did that last August and it has been, it's been amazing. So what kind of stuff are you doing with this program? Still the same kind of thing where you're highlighting a different dog each week. Yeah, every week we feature, so we have been featuring dogs, cats, horses, goats and rabbits. We wanted to bring in more animals, more local organizations. Yup. The other thing too is that we want to feature that people like we are, we're S we're partnered with our news media and we create content for them every Saturday morning. They feature the harder to adopt pets, but we also are creating our own, um, content for our project that we, we do an interview that's conversation style and we do professional photos session as well. But then we also want to learn more about the people who are actually doing the work, these animals. And this, this is another extension of the, of my vision and, and just what I want to be putting out into the world. And it's just to do with community and giving people a voice and um, just bringing people together and it's been like we cry a lot. Yeah. The things that the people tell us about why they do what they do is just absolutely. Yeah. Oh, that's amazing.

That, cause I know you have the podcast for the Seattle area. Is that connected with this project or is that separate?

Well, everything is connected in some way. So the project is called the limelight pet project and I'm partnered with, um, pet connection magazine. My friend Tracy and I are the two that sort of lead the charge with this, where every Tuesday we go and feature pets and the people who care for them. And then my podcast is Seattle pet collective and that's really focused on sharing the stories of people in the Seattle tech community who are doing great things. Um, whether that's at their local businesses or nonprofits or just people who are awesome. Um, yeah, that's great that the podcast came before the limelight pet project, but it was, I think all of it was meant to be. There were somehow I decided to launch a bunch of things last year and I have been, I have been struggling a little bit and you know, realizing there's only one of me, but, but it's a good, it's been really great.

Yeah. Guilty. I understand. I, I'm the same way. I'm like, Oh my God, all these amazing things and um, yeah, we'll have to have a separate discussion about outsourcing for, so you can keep doing all your amazing things. Oh, that's fantastic. So with all of these different collaborations, I mean, just what I imagine the benefits for your business have been tremendous. Not to mention the benefits for your heart, heart,

and your soul, but, um, yeah, just tell us a little bit about all the goodness that has come from this. Yeah. So, um, like I said earlier, that, so a lot of what I do, there's a long, it's a long game. There's a long, longer term vision. Um, so while I don't see immediate things like I, I don't see them all the time. I know like the ways that I see them are people reaching out to me and and saying, I absolutely love what you're doing. It's sort of like planting a seed. Absolutely. It's funny how you, you don't know what's happening out there because you're not in people's heads. But I'll get, I'll get messages where people are like, I can't wait to work with you. Like people who have like an envelope of money, they're saving up to be able to work with me because they follow all the things that I'm a part of and they really believe in it. Yeah. That's what I wanted to create. I want anyone who wants to work with me, I want them to be able to, and if that means they have to say, but for a while that's amazing. But also just, it means so much to me that they are becoming aware of these other passion projects that are, that are just as important. So this other collaboration that I, that I have that's coming up is with an a, another business who is a friend of mine who I actually met her in 2018 because I commissioned a digital portrait of a client's dog and it just sort of built this amazing friendship because it was like somehow the universe brought us together and knew we would definitely hit it off. And last year we decided, so she, so she does these incredible digital portraits and she makes tiny hats for dogs and she makes, she makes bandanas. Um, she, her business is called all dog kind. And the premise behind it is that every dog deserves to be loved no matter what their history or circumstance is. And she donates 20% of her profits to rescues. And we decided about a, almost a year ago that we needed to collaborate on a project. We just need to do something creative together. And we ended up, uh, she ended up designing, creating seven looks for seven rescue dogs as if they were going to last year's met gala. It's amazing. And photographed them. Uh, it was the theme of, of the met gala last year was camp notes on fashion, which is not camping like roasting marshmallows but camp as in like outrageous, which was okay. And so we called our project dogs of camp, um, and we did it in a very short amount of time and we're really figuring out what the purpose was as we were doing it. And it really was, we realized that it was just to show that every dog has a work of art no matter where they come from. And we ended up going on our local news and having an almost six minute segment sharing our, our project. And we brought one of the rescue dogs with us who she totally stole the show and I'll love it. So for me, this type of collaboration is probably one of the most important because it's showing how you can take a crazy idea and turn it into something that brings awareness to things that you really care about. Absolutely. Gosh, you know, like if people are listening to this and they're thinking, ah man, I would love to do something, but they just don't have, don't have any idea where to start. I would imagine you start with like, okay, what, what, like what lights me up with what kind of, you know, are there particular rescues or is there certain charities or certain events or you know, what is it that you have like the, the passion for and then figuring out, you know, what, what you have to offer. And maybe finding some partners. Like what are some ways that people can kind of start to brainstorm and just start to seek out and really they have to create, imagine most of these opportunities because a lot of them, it sounds like you were like, I have this idea, you're going to take some action and talk to some other people, which can be scary for a lot of introverted pet photographers. They do it. Everything that I have been doing over the past three years, um, feeds the belief that other people have in my ideas. That's, that's the long game. That's the hard work is building those relationships because having those people under like see your passion and believe in it. Then when you come up and say, Hey, I have this idea and people are like, yes, do it. And kind of, um, I have, I have to tell you about this other, this other collaboration that I did last fall. So do you know about Lagunita's? Yes.

Yeah. My husband loves it. I'm not a beer fan, but he's a fan.

So we have a login. He does tap room and brewery here in Seattle and they are huge in the community. Like they, they actually close on Mondays and Tuesdays to the public so that local nonprofits can have fundraisers and they donate all the beer sales.

Wow. That's amazing.

Yes. It's so amazing. So I actually started, I held my first fundraising event, a puppy love in 2018 at Lagunita's. They were like, yeah, sure, come, we won't charge you anything. You can do your, your, uh, portrait sessions here. And it was on like a Saturday and it was amazing. So much fun. And then last year, their event coordinator, they had got a new event coordinator who wanted to start doing some more dog focused events. And because I had done that event there, they reach out to me and we just sort of hit it off and built this relationship. And I have loved their logo of the dog with the cone. And I've had this idea of doing a fundraising event where people decorate cones and then it's a contest. Yeah. And so we partnered and we did a fundraising event where people, they decorated their cones at home and then brought them in and I photographed their dog where in the cone. And we had judges. And then I did a calendar and we had it, uh, we, it was all for one organization that we raised money for and we ended up raising, I think it was close to a thousand dollars. That's fantastic. But the calendar's hilarious. The dogs were amazing. And this is just a wacky, weird idea. And people loved it and they're excited for it to happen again this year. But that's the thing is I think a lot of people get afraid that their idea won't be accepted right away. And so they don't do it. And I'm going to tell you, don't be afraid to fail. It's okay because if you just, people just need to see that you're willing to follow through.

Yup. Absolutely. And you know, and failing isn't really failing. It's just, it's all an experiment. Um, seeing what worked and tweaking it and trying it again and a lot of these things, momentum builds more, more client engagement, more engagement in the community, more press, more everything else. So if you do it once and you're like, well, what's okay and then you don't do it again, you lose out on any of that momentum. Like if you do it once and it worked well in that, you know, you felt good about what you did and what you contributed and you giving it another, doing it again and tweaking it and continuing to grow it. You know, you never know what could happen from that.

Yeah. And I do think that the big thing for people to remember is that it just takes time and yeah, just doing these things and reaching out to people, building relationships. You'll build a community around your business and people will want to support that.

Absolutely. And the, I think a lot of people are scared for the rejection, right, for reaching out to somebody and saying, Hey, I have an idea. And them just say no or I can't. And I'm sure you've had people say no at some point you're still alive and

yeah, absolutely. Our met gala project, our original plan was actually to dress to create Kentucky Derby hats for rescue dogs. And the review that we read that we wanted to work with gave us the most amazing, no ever actually made us pivot. And because we're like we still want to work with you and we, cause they actually said that, you know, horse racing is not in alignment with what we stand for as a rescue rescue. And we were like, Oh my gosh, that totally makes sense. We didn't even think about that cause we were just thinking about hats for dogs. Right. Okay. Here's the other idea. And the met gala is two days after the Kentucky Derby. So we were like perfect. Still the same timeframe. Um, but it was, that's the thing is when someone gives you a note, okay, it's like what's next? Figure it out.

Exactly. And sometimes a no doesn't necessarily mean a no forever. Maybe it's no right now. Maybe it's no because of this. Like for that instance, I just think yeah, people get so up in their head being scared to, to reach out of their little bubble. And that's really the secret to creating these businesses that have some legs and continue to grow because, because you have to get out there and you have to make these connections and network with people and everyone thinks that, Oh I can just sit at home and do some stuff on social media and everyone will come. But just social media is the icing on the networking cake.

Yeah. Get off the internet up there really. Cause that's the thing too is the thing that I have realized with collaboration. Well collaboration is my love language for sure. Cause it's not just what I get out of it, it's what my partners get out of it. Seeing the growth that they get and also seeing them being able to express themselves through their passion in the, in the projects that we do is, is everything. And I think that's the thing that we can be so focused on building ourselves and what we, that we forget how much we will actually get out of supporting somebody else.

Yup. 100% yeah. Oh my gosh. This has been such an incredible conversation. I want to do both conversations. Thank you so much for being here. Is there anything else that you want to share with our listeners that kind of a, a last parting word of advice for them?

Yeah. So I would say that the thing that helped me get to find clarity on my vision and what it is I wanted to build was that I, I sort of sat down and I grabbed a photograph of myself as a child with my horse that I had as a kid. And I thought about who that girl is and what, what would she want, who did she imagine I would, I would become, and I actually, I call that my child heart and I sorta, I know I measure everything in my life against my child heart and what, what would my child heart want in that situation. And, and this goes for like everything and it especially is powerful if I ever have any sort of conflicts come up. Yeah. With things, whether it's an inner conflict or if it's something outside of my control I think about, okay. What, because I, and this is where like young me, before parents got divorced before any of the realities of living in the world where there is simply me being an animal lover and just living in that, that little world, it's, it's tapping into that. And who, what, what does she want? And it has changed my life, absolutely changed my life because it comes from such a pure place and really it is that simple that you can, you can tap into that beautiful space within yourself and align everything with that and you can have confidence that the decisions you're making are going to lead you to really great places.

That's so great. Yeah. That allows you to tap into really who you came here to be before the whole rest of the three D world came crashing down on you and said, no, no, no, no. That's wrong. You can't do that. That's silly. And then we all of a sudden talk ourselves into doing a nine to five job that we don't love for the rest of our life. Don't wait till you're 65 to maybe enjoy it for a few years while we can, instead of taking some risks and figuring out what is it that I was put on this earth here to do, how, what does that look like and what, what's the first step I can take? And I think getting really present to what it is you really want and being, not being afraid to ask, actually ask yourself that question, which I think a lot of people might be afraid of what the answer is that they would find. So they don't even want to look for it

in externally and what the world needs. What does the world think I need to do? Right.

And who's going to judge me and this and that and yeah. Which news for you? Everyone's going to judge you, so you might as well just do what you want to do. Yeah. Oh, so good. So good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So where can, if ever people want to follow on any of your collaborations or projects, where can they follow you?

Yeah, so I have about 5 million Instagram account. So my business account is dirty dog photography and that's D. I. R. T. I. E. not the other spot, the real spelling long story there, but it doesn't matter. Um, and uh, the limelight pet project also on Instagram and Seattle pet collective. Um, I'm also Seattle pet photographer. Um, I grabbed a bunch of Instagram handles, you know, that's just what you got to do. What happened? My business is mostly my business account mostly is like actual finished work. My Seattle pet collector's Seattle pet photographer is behind the scenes stuff and then on Facebook, dirty dog photography. Uh, you can just search for that. And then also the limelight pet project in Seattle pet collective. Excellent. photography.com.

Yay. Awesome. I love it. Thank you again so much for taking the time to chat with us. I think this was an incredible episode and hopefully people are inspired to figure out what it is that drives them and what they can focus on in their life in business that is bigger than themselves, that will actually drive all the other things that they want in their life as well. And if anybody has any questions, you can reach out. Thanks. That's awesome. Excellent. Well enjoy your week everybody and we'll talk to you soon. 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. One 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.