Social Motion Vertical Videos with Caitlin Timmins

December 10, 2021 Artist Spotlight

Clubhouse Conversation: Caitlin Timmins

In the latest episode of the Portrait System Podcast: Clubhouse Edition, Kevin Conde and Ashleigh Taylor chat with musician, videographer, and founder of Social Motion Packs, Catilin Timmins, who has been with SBE since it was just a twinkle in Sue Bryce’s eye.

When Sue was working as a photographer in LA, one day, she realized she needed an assistant. Not long after, Cait dropped her resume through Sue’s door, and the rest is history. Cait was one of the first people Sue told about her idea to create Sue Bryce Education, and Cait was there by her side watching it come together and helping along the way. In this conversation, Cait talks about how working with Sue and for Sue Bryce Education has influenced her career path and her belief in her abilities to manifest her dreams.

Be sure to listen to the whole podcast to hear all about Cait’s new company Social Motion Packs, which is an amazing resource for business owners who do social media marketing. She talks about how she came up with the idea of creating vertical videos packs for people to purchase and how she discovered the need for these digital products was greater than she had realized.  Cait shares all the ways people are using her social motion packs, and you won’t want to miss hearing her announcement that starting next year, her company will be accepting submissions of vertical videos for possible inclusion in her store. She also reveals that next year, her company will also begin offering musical packs for use on social media as well.

In this blog, you’ll find some recent portraits of Cait, links to her websites, and answers to some bonus questions.

Here are links to some things mentioned in this conversation: Social Motion Packs, Social Motion Packs in The Portrait Masters Store, and Making a Promo Video Tutorial.

Join us live every Friday for Clubhouse conversations and get answers to your questions! Just search “The Portrait System” in the Clubhouse App and follow us there.

Get to Know Cait

Q: When did you first come across Sue Bryce Education and how has it affected your career?

A: Well, I came across SBE because I helped build it! I started working for Sue as her photo assistant in July of 2014. I still remember the day she told me about her idea to create her own portrait education platform — little did I know the journey we were about to go on as a team! Working with Sue throughout all those years and having a front-row seat to what it takes to build a startup has been such an integral part of my journey. Not only did I learn so much about the camera, lighting, posing, etc., but also the power of believing in your own ideas and having the courage to see them through.

Q: When first starting out, many photographers hit roadblocks on their journey to starting their business – whether feeling their equipment isn’t good enough or feeling they need a studio to start a business. What roadblocks did you encounter and how did you get over them?

A: I think specifically for my business, Social Motion Packs, the biggest roadblock for me has been literally not knowing how to technically execute the business plan I had written. My whole life, I’ve been a bit of a do-it-yourself queen, always taking pride in wearing as many hats as possible. But creating this business has forced me to ask for help and build a team for the first time in my life, which has been a complete game changer!

 

“Don’t keep your ideas in. Talk to people about them. You never know who will know someone who can help you. But if you keep your ideas to yourself, nobody’s going to be able to point you in a direction.”

 

Q: How do you feel about your current work/life balance?

A: It could be better — that’s for sure! Ha! To be honest, I’m a bit overwhelmed right now getting ready to relaunch my business and website in January. The to-do lists are never ending, and I’m having to really make an effort to spend time away from work. It’s definitely not sustainable, and I’m starting to implement systems and outsource (yay), but I’m genuinely really excited about what I’m doing, too!

Q: What (beyond money) has owning a business given you?

A: Owning a business has shown me that I really can create the life I want. Creating and running a business is no joke — it can be really daunting to realize that its success is completely dependent on the energy, time, and effort you put into it. It all relies on you. But at the same time, it can be an incredibly freeing experience. Owning a business has given me the ability to trust myself more than I ever have, and has helped me understand my own power.

 

“Don’t be afraid to start small. Start cheap. Start doing things for free. Start. Just start.”

 

Q: What is your favorite advice that you’ve been given along your journey that has helped you the most? 

A: Something that Sue would say all the time: “Don’t ask, don’t get.” This has turned into a mantra for me in terms of literally asking for help from other people — but also in terms of asking the “universe” (or whatever you want to call it) for what you WANT. Name it. Write it down. Take action towards it. Ask when you don’t know the answer. Being resourceful, staying curious, and figuring it out has been what has helped me step forward in business and in life.


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Caitlin Timmins

Website – Instagram

Social Motion Packs

Website – Instagram

 

 


 

Transcript

Click Here to Read the Podcast Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Please note this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors. 

This is the Portrait System podcast, a show that helps portrait photographers and people hoping to become one, navigate the world of photography, business, money and so much more. We totally keep it real. We share stories about the incredible ups and the very difficult downs when running a photography business. I’m your host, Nikki Closser. And the point of this podcast is for you to learn actionable steps that you can take to grow your own business and also to feel inspired and empowered by the stories you hear.

Hey, there! This week on the Clubhouse episode with Ashleigh

00:00:30:01 – 00:01:04:13

and Kevin is one of my most favorite people, not only personally but also creatively. Caitlin Timmons Cait is just someone who absolutely has this incredibly talented way of creating beautiful, beautiful, not only music, but videos. And you may actually know her because she has been working with you for years and years as her assistant and eventually as her videographer. She also has the social motion packs for photographers, for social media. She talks all about what all of this has been like through her career with Sue.

00:01:04:21 – 00:01:11:27

Creating her own products is just such an amazing experience, and I know you’re going to love Kate. OK, let’s get started with Kate, Ashleigh and Kevin.

00:01:12:24 – 00:01:40:10

Welcome everyone to the Portrait System podcast Clubhouse Edition. My name is Kevin Conde. I’m here with my co-host Ashleigh Taylor. If you are not familiar with the portrait system where a portrait photography podcast that is powered by some bright education, Nikki Closser hosts our Monday episodes, and Ashleigh and I co-host our Clubhouse Edition, which is live here on the Clubhouse app every Friday at Noon Pacific and in our episodes are released on Thursdays. You can tune in on your favorite podcast app by searching for the portraitist. Ashleigh, I know

00:01:40:12 – 00:02:02:21

that I agree with Kevin. I’m excited to be back, and I’m so excited to introduce our very special guest today. We have Caitlin Timmins, who also goes by the name Cait for her music career. She is the founder of Social Motion Packs, and she’s also an amazing musician. So I’m so excited to have you on, Cait.

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Thank you for having me. It’s so fun to talk to you.

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So you have been such an integral part of the SBE team while working alongside Sue, creating the behind the scenes content and promotional videos, and recently having your Social Motion Packs go on sale and the Portrait Masters Store. And we thought it would be a good opportunity to be able to talk with you about social media and how you’ve grown your business. So let’s talk about Social Motion Packs. To my knowledge, there is nothing else on the market giving content creators the ability to add stock vertical video backgrounds.

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Where did you get the idea to create this product and how did you determine that it was actually a need?

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Yeah, and you yeah. To my knowledge, we are the only library that offers only vertical video. So that’s kind of exciting to me and not something that I really actually set out to do. It just kind of happened that way. How I got the idea, though, was, you know, as you guys know, I was working with Sue Bryce Education for many years in the portrait masters as well. And I I was essentially, I think my title was video marketing creator.

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Like, That’s what I did for them.

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And I also had a freelance

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business where I would work with

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brands and entrepreneurs.

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I did a few videos for Ashleigh.

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Yes, you did. They’re my favorite.

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You know, I still love those videos are so beautiful. And yes, I worked also simultaneously as a freelance videographer for about three and a half years, creating video marketing for creatives.

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And what I noticed during that time

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was it

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was kind of when vertical

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video was really starting to be really

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integral and important to businesses and brands. And so it was

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something that I started to offer in my services, where I would create

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a campaign of

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four to five vertical videos for

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my clients. And I just kind of

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I had this idea probably in the in the fall

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of 2019,

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but I was extremely busy at the time with my clients, and I just I didn’t I didn’t pursue it for for a good like four to five

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months

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after I had the idea of just offering collections of vertical videos that are beautiful, that don’t look stock or corporate or super masculine. Or, you know, because as a videographer, I would scroll on these stock video sites all the time to to try to to fill

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gaps in my videos or whatever. And I

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always just noticed that the videos that were available just weren’t anything that I think a cool brand

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would want to put their name on. And so I

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just I had this idea and I thought, You know when? COVID hit, I lost all my clients, but it ended up being a really big blessing in disguise because I

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had the time to kind of pursue this

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idea that I had had months before.

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I had no idea that this is something that kind of came out of COVID for you. I guess I don’t really remember when you officially started doing it, but I just. Yeah, that’s interesting that you say those kind of COVID that allowed you to kind of have the time and space to create thus.

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Yeah. And you know, like it started with just I had just

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changed my camera in my kit a few months, like in January of 2020.

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And I had the idea around then. But like I said, I was just like swamped.

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I didn’t. I had tons of clients lined up for the next year and I didn’t have time to really pursue it. And then when COVID hit,

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I would just like, go on walks

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around my neighborhood, take my camera with me and film

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the flowers or film, you know, like whatever was around. And I just kind of was like, Well, maybe this could be that thing that I that I thought of a few months ago and like, just

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try selling them on my store. And so we launched initially.

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It was just a

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product on my store.

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I’m like the Cait website. I kind of thought it was just going to be like digital

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merch for me as an artist.

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And then very quickly realized like, Oh no, these are their own thing. Like, they have their own personality. People are asking for like mountain packs and makeup packs, and people were like, you know, throwing a million ideas at me at all. All at once. And so I just kind of realized like, Oh, these could be their own brand, for sure.

00:06:45:03 – 00:07:02:21

That’s so cool. Did you like originally think that it would be mostly for photographers in those initial stages or because you knew so many photographers? Or were you always like, I can do something kind of like you said flowers or something that could be for any type of business and this could work for any business?

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Yeah, I think initially photographers were definitely top

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of mind just because I had worked for so many of them,

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but also musicians were

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also top of mind.

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My I had an idea many years ago, actually, that would be

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it would be helping musicians create marketing for their singles or for their albums or whatever. And so this social

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motion pack is kind of an expansion on that

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idea. But yeah, it wasn’t until I

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launched with just some very, you know, I think had launched with

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like videos of of fabric’s videos of nature and like a few other kind of more vague topics that I realized, Oh, these could work for multiple businesses, skincare, boutique, social media managers,

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anybody. And yeah, from then on, it’s just kind of been

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like, I’ve just been running with them.

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When you are then creating new packs, are you then keeping it top of mind to kind of keep it more of a broader sense? That way, it can then be used by so many different industries? Or do you ever decide like, Hey, I want to target, as you said, the music industry. So I’m going to create things, speakers, microphones and things of that nature?

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Yeah, both. I definitely. I have a long running list now. I also work with my sister. My sister works with me on this business as well, and we are constantly adding to this list of future pack ideas. And some of them are, are vague, you know, could be used by many different businesses. Some of them are like

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animation,

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not necessarily footage, but something that you would create in an animation software. And some of them are really specific to different industries. And I think

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one of our goals in the future is to just be that resource for business

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owners, no matter what industry you’re in, and that you can come to us and you can find

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really beautiful vertical video for your brand, no matter what what you do. So that’s definitely where we’re going is to kind of start start doing more packs that are that are

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niched down to different industries.

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One question I have for you is because I’ve noticed lately with some of your new releases, cause I follow you and everything that you put out and you’ve had so many, like you said, animation and just very different from what it was when you first started, as you said, it was just more clearly videography. So are you the one doing that too? Have you been able to take time? You seem like you must be so busy. Like, how did you learn how to do animation and all these different things?

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Yeah. So for the animation ones I’ve played with actually hiring animation artists, so I’ll create the mood board, I’ll tell them exactly what I

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want, and I’ll hire them, work for

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hire to create the

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vision that I have in mind

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because I just realized and this is this is something I learned from Sue, is that outsourcing is gold.

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And if you can do it.

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Yes. And that’s one of the many lessons I learned from her. And and so I’m I’m starting to be at this place where I am having ideas

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every week, and it’s just not possible for me

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to physically

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be the one who is doing everything. Most of the packs on our on our

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library right now are from me, but some of the like the specifically

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like the animation and the more

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digital created packs those I have actually worked with some really amazing artists who who helped me with those. So I’m starting to expand who can make packs.

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And that’s that’s one of the

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things that we’re actually going to be launching in in January

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is I haven’t haven’t

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told anyone this yet, but in January we’re launching a creator program that will allow people anywhere in the world to create their own packs

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and submit them to us,

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and they’ll be paid 60 percent royalty of of everything that they make. And so it’ll start to be kind of a marketplace as well for creators

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who who want to make their own packs.

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Oh, that’s so cool. I love that so much

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as everyone grabs their camera.

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Honestly, I’m like excited to see if any of the SBE community. Anybody who’s dabbled in video like,

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you know, come on, come on over to

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your bags that I’m so excited to see people’s creativity with it.

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That is actually a great opportunity for you as a marketplace because you’re if you’re doing it on your own, you don’t have the opportunity to then. You know, go everywhere that, you know, all your ideas come up with, you know, I’m in the area if you want the Golden Gate Bridge or something along those lines in the background, that’s something that someone else can do.

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It yourself or yes, different countries does things like that, that’s a fantastic idea.

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Exactly. And you know, like, you know, I’m I’m a pretty good videographer, but I’m not the best. Like, there’s so many people who are way better than me who have amazing ideas all over the world. And so I just kind of. And that’s also part of my, you know, I’ve realized

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my own core mission just personally

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is just giving creatives, you know,

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the empowerment and in a

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way to make money from their art like that just means so much to me. So I’m really I’m just so excited about that. But yeah, we’re still we’re still working out some kinks, but that should be launching in January.

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That’s really exciting. And I love what you said about giving creatives like ways to make money from their art because I’m just thinking about even like how you started this in the pandemic. And I know just for our community, there was so much fear when the pandemic happened. If you’re a photographer, what do you? I had that fear, like I went from a fully booked kind of like, you fully booked year basically to having to literally cancel everyone and wondering, are they going to reschedule or are they going to start asking for their money back? Even though, you know, I have a contract like just full I have to pay rent like on my studio, just full blown panic.

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And so like to have a way to make money online is so powerful, and it can be really hard when you’re a photographer because you’re, you know, maybe you’re not interested in creating digital products typically like, you know, a course or something like that, but you’re creative and it’s like, Well, what could you do? So I love that this could be like an opportunity for photographers slash videographers out there to, you know, dabble and potentially make some extra cash.

00:13:54:24 – 00:14:00:22

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that’s the dream, right? Like to be able to have something that you

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create once and then it lives on and and we’ll market it.

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We’ll all do the heavy lifting like you just focus on the creative part. Yeah.

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So I wanted to kind of talk to you key about trends in social media because really, your company is right on trend with that kind of explosion of video on Instagram. Tik Tok. I feel like when you launched because I think, you know, I’m very into Instagram. So when you launched, I remember the packs were pretty much like story backgrounds was mostly how people were using them could kind of put one up. It would be really pretty. Maybe add some pictures maybe had some text, but now it seems like there’s so many more possibilities with reels and tik toks and everything.

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So how do you like tell people like how they should use your packs?

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Ooh, that is a good question and something I feel like I’m in the middle

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of trying to do better.

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Yeah, but I mean, but you’re right, like every, every single social media platform is

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just really leaning into vertical video content, whether it’s Instagram, like you said with

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Reels and

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how they’re now showing videos on

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the feed with the full screen. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that, like when you scroll down your feed on Instagram now, a real will actually take up the entire screen. It won’t be cropped at four by five anymore.

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Yeah, that’s a new feature. I don’t have it yet, but I’ve seen other people screenshot there, you know, like, I’m like, Oh, that has been ruled out for me yet. But yeah, some people may be noticing that right now Totally.

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And so

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it’s like and same

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thing with with. Obviously, Tik Tok is is king of vertical video, but also things like like Pinterest is becoming huge for a vertical video and Pinterest is also such a visual

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platform as well. So and also

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YouTube just launched YouTube shorts, which is like their

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version of like a Tik

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Tok scrolling vertical feet. So it’s really just going in that direction, and it can feel really overwhelming to a lot of people.

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So one thing that we’re doing is we’re just going to be filming a big

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library of tutorials for people on that will be free.

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It’ll just be on our on our website that will show

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people, you know how easy it is to just implement vertical video into any of these

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platforms. And you don’t have

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to do a TikTok dance. You don’t have to point to invisible boxes above your head.

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And you know, it really can just be like really beautiful content. And but yeah, that’s one thing that we’re that we’re working on right now is, OK, how do we deliver all of this new

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updates and information to people so that they can feel confident

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posting vertical because it’s just it’s just where everything’s going,

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what with so many different platforms, then using video as you said, Pinterest, I didn’t even know Pinterest was an option for for video with. And as you said, Instagram now taking up full coverage of your phone screen. With so many platforms using video, what challenges then get brought in with this? Obviously, I would think that each use their own different dimensions. And what else is, does this become a roadblock?

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Hmm. That’s a very good question. Yes, I feel like some

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of them, some of the platforms, I think specifically Pinterest is the only one that comes to mind that has a slightly different dimensions.

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But you can still upload,

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you know, they don’t stop you from uploading to 1080 by 1920. But I think their dimensions for getting it off the top of my head, but I think it’s more like a thousand by.

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So I don’t know, I’ll have to look it up. But but it’s still vertical content, and I do know that Pinterest just also launched these things called idea pins, which are kind of like stories.

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And so I

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think it could be a roadblock for people in the

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in the terms that

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it’s just a lot, you know, it’s just overwhelming and feeling like you have to be in a million places at once. That’s why I always tell people just focus

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on one to start focus on one platform

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because,

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you know? But it’s also like,

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I don’t know if that answers your question, but

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potentially create different videos for different platforms and, you know, marketing it as such.

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Yeah. Yeah, and we’ve we found that people are

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using them more than just backgrounds on social media.

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Well, they work really

00:18:54:12 – 00:18:58:14

well as backgrounds for text, photos, graphics, anything like that.

00:18:58:23 – 00:19:14:16

But I’ve also noticed people working using them on their website as like video backgrounds for their mobile site. That’s cool. Oh yeah, awesome. And that’s another thing that’s that’s also going completely vertical. I mean, I I look at

00:19:14:18 – 00:19:19:20

websites on my phone all the time without looking at them on a on a computer.

00:19:19:22 – 00:19:21:28

So it’s if you have a vertical

00:19:22:00 – 00:19:24:13

video on your mobile site, you know,

00:19:24:25 – 00:19:26:00

it just looks so cool.

00:19:26:02 – 00:19:31:08

And that’s the kind of another thing that it has come up. That wasn’t our intention initially,

00:19:31:10 – 00:19:46:17

but is now becoming, yeah, is now becoming a way that our users are using them. And also another way like little creative way that people are using them recently, it is creating short GIFs

00:19:46:19 – 00:19:50:01

out of them. Like in Canva, you can use an app like

00:19:50:03 – 00:19:51:15

that to create a GIF out of a

00:19:51:17 – 00:19:57:01

video, and they’ll use them in their email marketing as well, like in the emails that they send out to

00:19:57:03 – 00:20:08:19

their clients or whatever. And so it’s it’s just it’s fascinating. I actually I learn a lot from our users on how on how to use these because it’s just it’s just growing so much.

00:20:09:21 – 00:20:44:29

That’s so cool. Yeah, I I was thinking too about how I even use them in like reels like I’ll clip them in. I’ve done a few where I’ve clipped them in with my photos. Like I’ve either stacked my photos on top or I’ve like kind of clipped it in if I wanted to have like fast cuts just so we’d have like something visually interesting. Sometimes they don’t get behind the scenes videos on my shoots. Not like intentionally. It’s just like so busy shooting for their makeup artists like dang. I want to show off this shoe, but it would be really cool if I could just have a little video and the still photos.

00:20:45:01 – 00:21:17:05

And so I’ll use like your Dancing Fabrics pack or your new and, you know, awesome collection that just came out for the portrait master is stored that obviously like all portrait-studio themed. So that’s just been a fun new way to experiment for me with using them as like how how can I clip them into my reels and still have like kind of most of the content of the real be, you know, unique to me in my photos, but then also be using the, you know, your videos to give it more visual interest.

00:21:17:10 – 00:21:21:02

Oh, that’s so cool. I love that. That’s a really cool way. And yeah, I’ve noticed

00:21:21:04 – 00:21:25:09

people doing something similar to that, where they’ll use them as kind of like a title,

00:21:25:20 – 00:21:32:01

a title slide. Yeah, where they’ll put like the title of the video or the photoshoot or or

00:21:32:03 – 00:21:35:18

whatever on on a video, and then it’ll go into their behind the scenes.

00:21:36:18 – 00:21:42:19

Yeah, it’s just it’s so cool to me. Just watching people get creative with them is so fun.

00:21:44:00 – 00:21:57:26

Now with your with the different packs, do they do any of them come with background music or any jingles? Or is there an availability to then add it on top? Do you provide that.

00:21:58:24 – 00:22:02:22

Yeah, I mean, I’m just giving you guys some golden nuggets and

00:22:02:24 – 00:22:06:15

in this interview, but that’s another thing that we are

00:22:06:26 – 00:22:17:00

working on and we’ll be launching also in January. We’re going to be creating social sound packs, which is essentially the same

00:22:17:02 – 00:22:22:01

as the videos that will be exclusively created by me and

00:22:22:03 – 00:22:27:08

also other musicians I know are creating some and they’ll be

00:22:27:10 – 00:22:32:00

sized 15 seconds each so

00:22:32:02 – 00:22:41:00

that you can just literally click and drag them over the motion. So we are going to start offering sound, and that’s another part of our

00:22:41:02 – 00:22:43:12

tutorial library will teach you all how to do it.

00:22:43:18 – 00:22:48:25

There’s, I think people just don’t realize how easy it is to make just

00:22:48:27 – 00:22:52:05

a really beautiful video ad that now you can

00:22:52:07 – 00:22:54:04

add your own custom sound to.

00:22:55:02 – 00:22:57:06

That’s also something we realized

00:22:57:08 – 00:23:03:16

people wanted, because if you’re a business account on Instagram or on TikTok, you might have

00:23:03:18 – 00:23:06:15

noticed that you don’t have the full music library.

00:23:08:05 – 00:23:11:12

I know we don’t on social impacts account,

00:23:12:08 – 00:23:16:07

which can be really frustrating, but I I get it because of copyright reasons.

00:23:16:09 – 00:23:19:21

You can’t have Dua Lipa on your commercial stories.

00:23:21:06 – 00:23:33:24

But yeah, so we’ve we’re starting to roll that out, and I’m really curious how how people are going to respond to that because I think I think it could be a really cool addition just. But to answer your question, the

00:23:33:26 – 00:23:38:26

videos themselves don’t have any sound on them. You can add your own sound. But we are going to start.

00:23:38:28 – 00:23:43:05

We are going to start offering social sound packs next year.

00:23:43:18 – 00:23:48:28

That’s. So cool and exciting, you have so much stuff coming down the pipeline that’s like so cool to hear about.

00:23:49:06 – 00:23:56:24

Yeah, I know this is my first time really like telling anybody like publicly, so you’re first.

00:23:57:13 – 00:23:59:00

Yay. We feel like we got to

00:24:00:18 – 00:24:01:20

have you.

00:24:02:02 – 00:24:03:17

Sorry, Kevin, I feel like you’re going to say.

00:24:05:18 – 00:24:25:00

Now, is this an instance where, as you say, with other other content creators being able to then upload their own social motion packs is, are they going to be able to? Is this something where you’re opening it up for them to also create the 15 second music clips? Or is this something that you’re holding on to exclusively?

00:24:25:09 – 00:24:33:11

Yeah. To start, we’re not going to allow the public to submit sound packs just because it’s a new product. And so we just

00:24:33:13 – 00:24:36:10

want to see how how it goes if people are liking it,

00:24:36:12 – 00:24:48:22

if people want more and then but that is kind of the plan like further down the line maybe six months into 2022. Well, we’ll open it up if it’s going well and if people want more.

00:24:49:13 – 00:24:52:28

But yeah, that is that is the idea. I hope we get to that point.

00:24:54:29 – 00:25:32:11

One thing I wanted to ask you is I’ve noticed you’ve had some really great like collaborations and features with other really big platforms. And I was wondering if you had any advice for like how to get those opportunities because I know as photographers were also always looking for, you know, opportunities to be featured and get more eyes on our business. And like, you just had a collaboration with the company later, which is a huge platform. So do you have like, did you seek those out? Did they seek you out? Do you have any advice for how people can get more opportunities, like big collaborations like that for themselves?

00:25:32:29 – 00:25:35:03

Yeah, absolutely. I think,

00:25:36:02 – 00:25:40:02

you know, I kind of operate from this position of

00:25:41:10 – 00:25:45:05

not being so precious about about what I

00:25:45:07 – 00:25:48:17

offer. And what I mean by that is, you know, just really.

00:25:48:24 – 00:25:52:00

So for instance, with later they

00:25:52:02 – 00:25:59:01

approached me in like in wanting to do some kind of giveaway on Instagram, and I was like, Yes,

00:25:59:03 – 00:26:03:07

absolutely. And I just kind of created it. They they were going

00:26:03:09 – 00:26:05:08

to give away like a discount, and I said, No, let’s

00:26:05:10 – 00:26:06:21

I’ll give some

00:26:06:23 – 00:26:07:08

free

00:26:07:10 – 00:26:23:12

packs to any user. And they were like, Oh, wow, that’s so generous. Like, thank you. Like, I think don’t be so precious in terms of those collaborations and just really add value. And I think it’s OK to be

00:26:23:14 – 00:26:29:16

generous in those in those situations, especially if it’s a new company or or

00:26:29:18 – 00:26:31:08

a collaboration that you really

00:26:31:10 – 00:26:38:14

want that I, you know, and I also knew that doing that would open doors to

00:26:38:16 – 00:26:45:26

other other giveaways and brand collaborations in the future. So I think just adding value and making sure that

00:26:47:14 – 00:26:50:15

that that they that they feel like,

00:26:50:24 – 00:26:51:09

you know,

00:26:51:18 – 00:26:57:17

not holding back so much. So like I feel like I could have been a little stingier in that. Yeah, and

00:26:57:19 – 00:27:00:06

I and I wasn’t and I think they appreciated

00:27:00:08 – 00:27:03:13

that. And and also don’t be afraid to slide into

00:27:03:15 – 00:27:11:11

somebody’s DMs and show your personality and be really complimentary and and ask and

00:27:11:26 – 00:27:13:06

always offer

00:27:13:08 – 00:27:15:18

to do something in return. I think that’s what I

00:27:15:20 – 00:27:26:06

mean about adding value is, you know, we did a I’m not sure if you know who Sophia Amoruso is. She’s a she started Girlboss

00:27:26:08 – 00:27:26:23

and

00:27:27:07 – 00:27:39:08

all that. And now she has her own business course. And I literally slid into her DMs one day and was like, I love what you’re doing. I think our

00:27:39:10 – 00:27:42:16

audiences are aligned. You know, she

00:27:42:18 – 00:27:53:08

teaches small businesses or entrepreneurs how to how to level up their business, and a lot of our users are small business owners. And so I was like, I’d really love to offer your

00:27:53:10 – 00:27:58:21

community a free pack if they want. And, you know, just kind of

00:27:59:11 – 00:28:01:24

that was it. Like, I wasn’t really asking

00:28:01:26 – 00:28:05:22

for much in return from her other than just posting about

00:28:05:29 – 00:28:08:01

us to her community and giving

00:28:08:03 – 00:28:14:25

her community something from us because that was exposure enough for us to this new audience.

00:28:15:06 – 00:28:17:27

And they said yes, because we

00:28:17:29 – 00:28:21:13

were just offering them something great for for their business. And I think

00:28:21:25 – 00:28:26:13

as photographers, you guys have this creative ability to

00:28:26:15 – 00:28:28:05

offer something to

00:28:28:23 – 00:28:30:09

to lots of different

00:28:30:11 – 00:28:34:25

types of brands. And I think if there is a direction that you want to go.

00:28:35:11 – 00:28:40:29

Don’t be afraid to just, you know, tell them, I’ll offer you this if

00:28:41:01 – 00:28:46:15

you’ll do this one small thing and and see where it goes, know if you don’t ask you don’t get it.

00:28:46:28 – 00:28:51:21

And so I just I I would encourage everybody to just don’t. Don’t be afraid to

00:28:51:23 – 00:28:57:00

slide into someone’s DMs or, you know, just send their cold email. You never know where it will take you.

00:28:57:26 – 00:29:17:01

I love that. I feel like that’s such as something I know to be brave and to just ask and see where it takes. See you, and like you said, to also be like in not giving energy, that just feels like such a great reminder for everyone in this community to take with them in their business, right?

00:29:17:03 – 00:29:18:19

I mean, think about if you got a

00:29:18:21 – 00:29:25:04

message from someone random who you didn’t know and like, what would make you give them the time of day?

00:29:25:06 – 00:29:28:06

It’s probably if they were just being super

00:29:28:08 – 00:29:30:17

genuine and nice and offering you

00:29:30:19 – 00:29:33:22

something like, that’s what would make me stop and

00:29:33:24 – 00:29:38:08

read their message and respond to them. So it’s kind of like, think about

00:29:38:13 – 00:29:40:00

how you would,

00:29:40:11 – 00:29:47:05

you know, if you were on the flip side, what kind of message would make you think, OK, I’m going to see what this person is all about.

00:29:47:27 – 00:30:14:14

Yeah, I think that’s so key because I feel like I get so many will. I think everyone might right now on Instagram, like you get so many weird DMs that are like, Yeah and ambassador request. And you’re just like, Where you want me to buy, you’re like, What is this? You know? So like to write a message that’s actually genuine and is actually not asking for something, but like giving something is is so major. Mm.

00:30:14:26 – 00:30:15:27

Yeah, absolutely.

00:30:16:20 – 00:30:45:11

Cait, I wanted to talk to you also about your time with, you know, SBE and how that influenced your ability to start this, you know, business that has just blossomed and grown so fast. I feel like, you know, you’re not exactly doing photography, right? You’re doing videography, but I know that working for Sue must have given you such a leg up.

00:30:46:03 – 00:30:50:12

Absolutely. Everything I know is from working for Sue.

00:30:52:06 – 00:31:06:02

Yeah. Well, could you tell us like what? Maybe like the best or the biggest piece of advice that you use in your business right now that came from what you learned from like SBE, even though you’re not in a photography business?

00:31:06:17 – 00:31:10:26

Mm yes. Oh my God, there’s there’s a lot. There’s a lot that I learned,

00:31:12:06 – 00:31:16:03

you know, because I worked for them for about five and a half years, and I essentially got

00:31:16:05 – 00:31:23:27

a front row seat to what it takes to go from an idea to a startup to a thriving

00:31:23:29 – 00:31:38:25

business. So, yeah, man, there’s so much, I think. I think one of the biggest things I learned from Sue, you know, I remember the day that she was sitting on the couch at her apartment

00:31:38:27 – 00:31:41:27

here in L.A., and we had just had a photo shoot

00:31:41:29 – 00:31:43:12

or something I can’t even remember.

00:31:43:14 – 00:31:45:10

But she was like, I have this idea

00:31:45:24 – 00:31:47:05

for a membership

00:31:47:18 – 00:31:49:17

site for portrait education

00:31:49:19 – 00:31:51:28

where I would film videos and people would pay a monthly

00:31:52:00 – 00:31:56:04

fee and they would get to have access to

00:31:56:06 – 00:31:58:12

all of my knowledge. And I was like,

00:31:58:14 – 00:32:03:13

That’s a great idea. Like, I still remember that idea, like before

00:32:04:00 – 00:32:05:03

Aaron was

00:32:05:05 – 00:32:05:20

even

00:32:06:01 – 00:32:21:15

asked to come down to work on it with us, you know? And I think one thing I learned from that experience is obviously her sitting in that moment. She didn’t know how to do that. You know, she didn’t know how

00:32:21:17 – 00:32:25:12

to build a custom website with a membership

00:32:25:14 – 00:32:29:29

gate and and all the technicalities that go into that, like, she had no idea she

00:32:30:01 – 00:32:30:17

just had this

00:32:30:24 – 00:32:34:03

vision of what she wanted. And then every

00:32:34:05 – 00:32:42:17

week after that, it was like baby steps towards that direction. OK, we’ll tell Erin about this idea. He loves

00:32:42:19 – 00:32:45:20

He’s going to come down to L.A. and help us film, OK. We needed somebody

00:32:45:22 – 00:32:49:12

to build the website. Who do we know? And it just kind of looks like

00:32:50:04 – 00:32:56:07

small steps in the direction of what you want. And I think one of the things one of the main takeaways from

00:32:56:09 – 00:33:10:29

that that I really got from her was like, If you have an idea that you’re excited about, even if you don’t know how to do it, there’s always a way to find people who will know

00:33:11:01 – 00:33:11:19

how to do it.

00:33:11:21 – 00:33:16:18

And that’s one of her superpowers, right? Is like she just talks

00:33:16:20 – 00:33:19:04

things into existence. And I think that’s

00:33:19:06 – 00:33:24:06

also something huge that I learned from her is I don’t keep your ideas in

00:33:24:17 – 00:33:25:03

and

00:33:25:13 – 00:33:26:05

talk to people

00:33:26:07 – 00:33:30:13

about them, even like even if it’s just like your mom or like, you know,

00:33:31:09 – 00:33:31:24

you never

00:33:31:26 – 00:33:34:16

know who will know someone who can help you.

00:33:35:04 – 00:33:37:06

But if you keep your ideas to yourself,

00:33:37:24 – 00:33:48:02

nobody’s ever going to know, and nobody’s ever going to be able to point you in a direction. And yeah, and then and then also just don’t be. Don’t be afraid to start small

00:33:48:07 – 00:33:55:17

start, cheap start, you know, doing things for free start, you know, just start.

00:33:55:19 – 00:34:00:03

And I know she says that all the time. And so I think

00:34:00:15 – 00:34:02:17

that’s probably one of the biggest

00:34:02:19 – 00:34:06:25

things that I learned from her and I tell her all the time. I’m like, I’m not I’m not scared

00:34:07:03 – 00:34:10:19

to go after my business ideas because I saw you do it,

00:34:11:04 – 00:34:11:26

you know, like,

00:34:11:28 – 00:34:17:25

yeah, it’s it’s such a I’m so eternally grateful for that whole

00:34:17:27 – 00:34:18:18

experience

00:34:19:28 – 00:34:23:13

because it’s probably one of the biggest things I feel like I got from her.

00:34:24:05 – 00:34:30:03

I love that. I feel like it always gives me chills that you were there when she, like, said, You know, not

00:34:31:08 – 00:34:34:13

the idea that we did. We know, I know

00:34:35:18 – 00:34:48:01

I was unaware that you were there from, like the very, very beginning, like before anything was, you know, in full motion that it’s just amazing to think that you got to see the entire process,

00:34:48:06 – 00:34:57:27

the entire process. I mean, it’s like I got a Ph.D. in creating a startup, you know, like it. And it’s such a cool

00:34:58:28 – 00:35:04:26

memory for me and like such a cool experience. And you know, at the time, I was 22.

00:35:04:28 – 00:35:07:23

Like, I didn’t. I was just trying to, like, do a

00:35:07:25 – 00:35:10:00

good job and like, pay my rent and like,

00:35:10:21 – 00:35:11:21

you know, like,

00:35:12:10 – 00:35:13:23

do my best in L.A. I

00:35:13:25 – 00:35:23:06

was so new and didn’t really know anything about the portrait industry. And so it’s just like, you don’t and you don’t have to. That’s the thing. Like she.

00:35:23:25 – 00:35:29:10

And that’s what I learned from her is like, you can just you can have a good idea and not know anything about the

00:35:29:11 – 00:35:34:19

industry that you’re going into or like. And that’s also kind of like it’s

00:35:34:21 – 00:35:38:04

similar to where I’m at now because it’s like, I don’t know anything about

00:35:38:06 – 00:35:58:15

tech or like building a, you know, a creator program or like a membership or whatever. Like, I’m just like so green to all of this. But yeah, one thing I learned from her is just just talk about it and find people who can help you. Don’t be afraid of your of the of your blind spots.

00:35:58:17 – 00:36:03:28

You know, as long as you know where they are, you know how to fill them. So, yeah,

00:36:04:00 – 00:36:07:03

I think it really watching her took a lot of fear

00:36:07:05 – 00:36:07:29

away from me.

00:36:08:17 – 00:36:10:12

So indebted to her for that.

00:36:11:07 – 00:36:42:23

I love that. Yeah. Did you like so I know you didn’t really, you know when you met Sue, you didn’t intend to be a videographer or any of this stuff? I think you were just wanting to be a musician, if I have that correctly, because I met you back in 2015 and I think you were just you hadn’t been working for you a super long time at that point, as far as I remember. Yeah, because I met you at that workshop in Culver City. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, really long time ago.

00:36:42:25 – 00:37:00:29

I know I almost forget about that until you started saying that you know you’ve been with you since the beginning and it kind of flashed me back. And yeah, but I was going to say is like, how did you like, fall in love with video like? Was that also something that came from working with her?

00:37:01:04 – 00:37:07:20

Oh yes, completely. I, you know, one day. So Sue was still she was still

00:37:07:22 – 00:37:12:23

taking clients at the time, and we had a client shoot and

00:37:13:02 – 00:37:14:22

Sue, just like handed me

00:37:14:24 – 00:37:16:18

a camera one day and

00:37:16:20 – 00:37:19:20

was like, Here I set the settings. So like the

00:37:19:22 – 00:37:23:10

ISO and everything was already set for me because I didn’t know anything about

00:37:23:12 – 00:37:28:09

the camera. And she was like, Here, like, this is how you focus. This is how you take a shot.

00:37:29:00 – 00:37:35:23

Just get creative and take some behind the scenes photos. And I did. And then later that

00:37:35:25 – 00:37:38:11

night, we’re like looking through the photos. She’s like, These are pretty good.

00:37:40:05 – 00:37:47:21

I think great. I’m glad I was helpful, you know, because I was just I was her assistant. I was just trying to be good at my job. That was it.

00:37:49:00 – 00:37:51:24

And it kind of snowballed from there to like, Oh,

00:37:52:14 – 00:37:53:16

like, I think it

00:37:53:18 – 00:37:58:05

was a canon mark three at the time, and we were like, Oh,

00:37:58:07 – 00:38:03:06

I think this takes video. We should try to take some video clips like like exactly what

00:38:03:08 – 00:38:09:15

you’re doing with the behind the scenes photos, but like video versions. And I was like, OK, you know, just trying to be a good assistant.

00:38:10:21 – 00:38:15:09

And yeah, like it just kind of started. It’s really started just

00:38:15:11 – 00:38:32:19

from me trying to be helpful and give her content for her socials and for her marketing as a photographer. And then, you know, the Canon 5D Mark four came out and it had like those awesome slow motion capabilities

00:38:32:21 – 00:38:33:21

and like the touch screen

00:38:33:23 – 00:38:36:15

focus. And that was the camera that

00:38:36:17 – 00:38:40:12

really um we started to just

00:38:40:14 – 00:38:41:27

film behind the scenes of

00:38:41:29 – 00:38:43:26

everything because we saw the

00:38:43:28 – 00:39:03:26

value in it. Right? Yeah. She got so much content and so much interest from people seeing behind the scenes content. And so that kind of in addition to assistant work that kind of became part of my job as well. Whenever we were shooting, I would have my camera and I would film behind the scenes clips. And then, you know, a few months

00:39:03:28 – 00:39:09:08

later, it was. All right, let’s see if we can edit these together, and, you know, it was a very slow

00:39:09:27 – 00:39:11:22

process, but it kind of just

00:39:11:24 – 00:39:13:17

came out of need

00:39:13:29 – 00:39:21:01

and necessity. And then as we were filming Sue Bryce Education, all those

00:39:21:03 – 00:39:25:03

first batch of videos that I started

00:39:25:05 – 00:39:28:16

filming behind the scenes for those as well. And then it just kind of

00:39:28:28 – 00:39:50:22

I would get curious about. I would see a video on social media that had, for example, maybe like a glitch, a glitch transition or like a cool little editing technique that I would see. And I’d be like, How do you do that? And I google it and be like, or YouTube it and be like, How do you edit a cool little light sweep

00:39:50:29 – 00:39:54:00

transition in iMovie? And I would

00:39:54:09 – 00:39:57:17

watch a YouTube tutorial, learn how to do it and then, you know,

00:39:57:19 – 00:39:59:02

use that in my next video for

00:39:59:08 – 00:40:05:21

So it was it was very slow the process. But I think it yeah, it just

00:40:05:23 – 00:40:08:16

kind of came out of her handing me a camera one day and saying,

00:40:09:03 – 00:40:14:08

try this, which is like such a metaphor for life, right? Yeah.

00:40:15:00 – 00:40:23:17

As a kid, did you know you, like, had visual like artists? Did you have like visual artist tendencies or was it always music as a kid?

00:40:24:04 – 00:40:26:17

I totally had visual tendencies.

00:40:26:19 – 00:40:29:17

I mean, music is is my first love. I remember

00:40:31:01 – 00:40:34:05

when I first started releasing music, I was 14

00:40:34:19 – 00:40:35:16

and like

00:40:35:18 – 00:40:37:03

I, my lovely,

00:40:37:05 – 00:40:39:05

lovely mom is an

00:40:39:07 – 00:40:59:21

artist as well. But she’s she makes jewelry. She’s more of a she works with clay a lot. So that’s that’s her medium. But she had this camera for photographing her, her jewelry and her art. And so I remember being like 14 year old and being like, Mom, this is what I want for my for my music. I want this type of photo

00:40:59:24 – 00:41:04:08

where I’m standing in the middle of a street in the countryside and like, Let’s

00:41:04:10 – 00:41:08:15

go to my lovely, lovely mom would drive me all around Wisconsin and take

00:41:08:17 – 00:41:10:00

photos of me for my music

00:41:10:28 – 00:41:19:14

and I would direct her through it. And I had little did I know that, but that was kind of going to be what I would be doing

00:41:19:24 – 00:41:20:22

later in life.

00:41:20:24 – 00:41:29:21

And and yeah, so music was always my first love, but I always really cared about the visuals that went with it. Like, really, really spent

00:41:29:23 – 00:41:43:01

a lot of time wondering about things like that. And even into college, I went to a music school in Boston, and even then, like I had, I would use my boyfriend’s camera to film a little

00:41:43:03 – 00:41:43:18

lyric

00:41:43:20 – 00:41:52:14

video for my new song or something. And this was, you know, I knew nothing about camera settings. I was just like pressing record and that was it, and somehow

00:41:52:19 – 00:41:57:01

would figure out a little way to create a video visual

00:41:57:03 – 00:42:00:09

for my music. And so I was always interested.

00:42:01:11 – 00:42:09:14

But I never in a million years thought that it would be, you know, the thing that would be my career. Never in a million years.

00:42:10:25 – 00:42:29:16

I love that. That’s so inspiring. It just like reminds people that like, you just never know where life is going to take you. And just like, like you already said, listen to those little voices and speak about it and tell people, you know what your thoughts are and just see where it can take you because you just really never know where your path is leading you to.

00:42:29:25 – 00:42:32:18

Yeah. And I think a lot of people get bogged down by

00:42:33:26 – 00:42:36:25

only identifying with one or thinking that you have to

00:42:36:27 – 00:42:37:18

choose,

00:42:39:04 – 00:42:41:24

you know, if I’m a musician, then I can’t be

00:42:41:26 – 00:42:50:06

working in photography or if I’m a musician, I can’t be a videographer or whatever your version of that is. I think a lot of people get

00:42:50:08 – 00:42:55:16

bogged down in like, I have to be this one thing like this is my identity and I

00:42:55:18 – 00:43:01:18

think, you know, excuse my French, but I think that’s bullshit. Yeah, I think you can be as multifaceted

00:43:01:20 – 00:43:06:14

as you want, and it only makes your art better. From from any angle.

00:43:07:05 – 00:43:30:19

I love that a lot, too, because I mean, I think I get stuck in that like I used to perform. And I when I started way back when I started photography as a wedding photographer, I really felt like I had to just quit performing like it was going to interfere. Just put that in a box. Put it aside, that’s not your path anymore. And just, you know, let it go. And then

00:43:32:06 – 00:43:48:29

later with reels, I’ve been having so much fun because I just get to play with that side of me that likes to be on camera and likes to perform and likes to be different little characters and everything more. And it’s like, I forgot that that person, like almost, you know, lived within me.

00:43:49:27 – 00:43:58:26

However, I’m sure that skill has only helped you in your photography business as well. Like that, you know how to be in front of people like even doing this,

00:43:58:28 – 00:44:00:25

like interviewing someone on a podcast

00:44:00:27 – 00:44:02:05

like that? That’s hard.

00:44:04:02 – 00:44:04:17

But.

00:44:04:22 – 00:44:10:26

You know, I’m sure that has something to do with your your performance training is that you’re you’re not scared of stuff like that, and so

00:44:10:28 – 00:44:13:07

it only expands what you’re doing.

00:44:13:19 – 00:44:46:11

Yeah, exactly. And it’s funny because, you know, last year, I guess 20. Yeah. So basically at the end of 2020, like December 2020, I always like write down like goals and I bought this like goals journal. So it had like little prompts in it. And you just were supposed to write really random goals that you had no idea how you could ever achieve them. And I wrote actually that I wanted to have my own podcast because I love listening to podcasts so much. Not that this is like my own podcast, but I just had like such.

00:44:46:21 – 00:45:12:08

It was just this weird thing that I didn’t do anything to pursue, to pursue it and just to get the opportunity to interview people and be a part of this has been like, Whoa, that’s so weird. I wrote this down. I’m like, You just never like, you just really never know, though like Sue also says, Just write down your goals, whatever they are, even if you have zero clue like how or how it would show up for you.

00:45:12:17 – 00:45:19:04

Yeah, exactly. That’s that’s such a good. I love that. That’s awesome. I feel like I’m going after this. I’m going to write down my goals.

00:45:20:09 – 00:45:22:14

Everyone, go write down your goals in December.

00:45:23:01 – 00:45:25:00

I’ll just say the new year right around the corner now.

00:45:25:17 – 00:45:28:10

I know now’s a good time for you.

00:45:28:12 – 00:45:42:00

You Ashleigh basically materialized. Just how soon says, you know, you put it out into the universe and then, you know, you asked for it, you got it. Just how you know. Yeah, that’s for an assistant. You know, all of a sudden Cait’s dropped off her resume her door, you know?

00:45:42:25 – 00:46:13:15

I know that’s like the funny thing is, I really didn’t do anything to pursue it. I like, wrote it down and then I just I even had a plan to, like, create my own little podcast for my photography business. I was going to interview my clients because I photographed so many brand clients, and I think their businesses are interesting. And I just that was always like, you know, I was just barely surviving my to do list. I was like, Oh, time to do this, you know? Yeah. So just kind of goes to show like, you just never know how something’s going to materialize.

00:46:13:17 – 00:46:19:15

Sometimes it is just, I don’t know, putting it out to the universe and just seeing if the universe can answer you.

00:46:19:17 – 00:46:26:17

And sometimes it takes time to write like it. Maybe that’s something you wrote in Twenty Twenty. Maybe it won’t end up happening until

00:46:26:19 – 00:46:28:08

twenty twenty three or something, but

00:46:28:10 – 00:46:29:11

like if it’s

00:46:29:13 – 00:46:37:29

in the back of your mind, you know, it can only it can only fester and manifest in certain ways and sometimes in ways that you don’t even expect.

00:46:38:01 – 00:46:39:12

Like this? Like this podcast?

00:46:39:23 – 00:47:04:22

Yeah, that’s true, too. Like with vision boards, like a lot of times, I’ll make a vision board and it doesn’t come true that a lot of the things on it, you know, that year. But like, I have a vision board right now, and I think it’s like three years old, three or four years old. But now almost everything on it has come true. But if you had asked me, like at the end of the, you know, the full, like 365 days from when I made it, I would have been like this being bored. It’s B.S., you know?

00:47:07:10 – 00:47:29:12

So like, sometimes you just have to like, sometimes your dreams are so big they take time, you know, I think people forget that that like you can’t. Sometimes you can make this magic transformation and change in a short period of time. But sometimes, like you said, it’s baby steps and it takes years of building up each step to be able to achieve the vision.

00:47:29:23 – 00:47:30:18

Absolutely.

00:47:31:05 – 00:48:02:21

So Cait, you have had so going into your your actual work of photography and your music industry, you’ve created so many beautiful fantasy style artwork for your covers. Yeah. From climbing out of the window into like a new world for what was that, I was never here floating forgetful. I have my own personal favorite the, you know, being surrounded by the mountains of books in genius. Yes. Can you talk about a bit about the process of coming up with your concept and how you see them through?

00:48:03:22 – 00:48:13:21

Oh man. I mean, I think I never really know what the cover is going to be while we’re writing the song, and

00:48:13:25 – 00:48:20:11

usually not until, you know, the song is already done and produced and everything. And a lot of the times I’ll

00:48:20:13 – 00:48:23:10

have multiple ideas and try different things

00:48:23:20 – 00:48:25:24

and bang my head against the wall

00:48:25:26 – 00:48:37:14

and fail a lot. You know, specifically like for genius, the one with all the books I probably edited, like four different

00:48:37:16 – 00:48:45:12

covers for that time and like, hated all of them. And then it wasn’t until sometimes you sometimes it comes like really,

00:48:46:03 – 00:48:53:05

really quickly where I’m like, Oh, this song, I see this scene. Like, No problem. Like, That’s it, I’m done.

00:48:53:15 – 00:49:00:00

And then some of the songs, it’s like, you have to kind of work, work at it and find and find it a little bit more.

00:49:00:11 – 00:49:05:10

I love those covers because it’s just such a they’re so derived from

00:49:05:12 – 00:49:13:07

my time at SBE and specifically working behind the scenes, filming, filming on the videos

00:49:13:09 – 00:49:27:20

for a lot of the courses that are on the Portrait Masters store. Like, like Richard Wood, she’s just this incredible fantasy creative photographer, editor and I always loved his

00:49:27:22 – 00:49:33:23

his visions and how he would make them come to life and we’d be in the studio. And I think in

00:49:33:25 – 00:49:39:21

his first course, he has this shoot where he photographs the fish like a

00:49:39:28 – 00:49:42:04

goldfish or something. And yeah,

00:49:42:06 – 00:49:47:19

yeah, I remember that right? He applies the the tail of the fish to a portrait

00:49:47:21 – 00:49:51:09

of a girl and makes her into this mermaid. And I was like, What?

00:49:51:11 – 00:49:56:06

it like, I love. I love that. Like how he would just photograph different elements.

00:49:56:08 – 00:49:57:18

And Sue

00:49:57:20 – 00:50:03:22

also does that a lot with with different textures or fabrics like she will, you know,

00:50:03:25 – 00:50:08:29

compose different elements that she’s photographed, maybe even at different times in the

00:50:09:01 – 00:50:13:06

portraits. And I always really liked that creative aspect

00:50:13:08 – 00:50:19:20

of it and that kind of fantasy fantasy world creating something that wasn’t there in the moment, but looks

00:50:19:22 – 00:50:20:16

really real.

00:50:21:17 – 00:50:23:04

And I just kind of I

00:50:23:06 – 00:50:23:27

did it for

00:50:24:07 – 00:50:30:13

one song that came out in Twenty Twenty and I loved it, and I just kind of decided that was going to be my

00:50:30:15 – 00:50:36:04

thing for all of my single covers, just to use those that

00:50:36:06 – 00:50:37:16

kind of thinking and

00:50:38:07 – 00:50:43:11

create a world for each song. Yeah, it it changes every song.

00:50:43:13 – 00:50:49:15

Sometimes it comes really fast and I have one photo shoot and that’s it. And then I’m done and it looks great.

00:50:49:17 – 00:50:51:26

And then sometimes it’s like it’s a

00:50:51:28 – 00:50:54:27

journey, and I am working on a cover for like a month.

00:50:56:15 – 00:51:00:23

Yeah, it’s it’s always it’s always a process, that’s for sure.

00:51:01:14 – 00:51:14:20

Are you then able to take that same kind of process and then transfer that over into any form of the videos you create for marketing? Or is that a different, different process altogether?

00:51:15:09 – 00:51:18:04

Yeah, it’s similar. I mean, I can’t I can’t do as

00:51:18:06 – 00:51:22:18

much, you know, composition and stuff like

00:51:22:20 – 00:51:36:24

that in the video, just because I know it’s possible. I just don’t have that skill set. That’s like, that’s like a Marvel movie level of editing. And so I don’t I don’t have that skill set, but I do. I do think about simple

00:51:36:26 – 00:51:37:18

things that

00:51:37:20 – 00:51:45:12

I do know how to do. Like, there is the forgetful music video that I shot in Sue’s studio, actually

00:51:46:19 – 00:51:51:17

where I’m just laying in one spot the entire time. And I

00:51:51:20 – 00:51:54:13

took photographs of all of Sue’s flowers

00:51:55:04 – 00:51:57:06

and and photographs of

00:51:57:08 – 00:51:58:19

different pieces of paper

00:51:58:21 – 00:52:01:11

and different objects and stuff. And then in

00:52:01:13 – 00:52:04:01

editing, I made the

00:52:04:03 – 00:52:06:08

move like stop motion. So every

00:52:06:10 – 00:52:07:04

few frames,

00:52:07:06 – 00:52:14:03

I would move it on the screen and and and that was something that I was like, OK, I know how to do this.

00:52:14:05 – 00:52:15:08

It’ll look like this

00:52:15:10 – 00:52:16:04

fantasy world,

00:52:16:06 – 00:52:16:21

but it’s

00:52:16:23 – 00:52:18:10

actually somewhat of a simple

00:52:19:07 – 00:52:29:06

concept. So, yeah, it does. It definitely does transfer over into the videos, but probably not as complex

00:52:29:20 – 00:52:31:25

as you can do it in Photoshop, Photoshop,

00:52:31:27 – 00:52:40:16

I feel like you can do anything. The video is is a little bit more limited when it comes to creative editing like that, but still can do it a little bit.

00:52:41:12 – 00:52:53:25

Was Photoshop something you also like learned just because you were working from Sue when you had to it? You know, Photoshop things for her? Or was it strictly from watching like the Richard Wood class that made you be like, Oh, I got to learn how to do all this?

00:52:54:17 – 00:52:58:11

Oh yeah, no, I. I learned a lot just

00:52:58:13 – 00:53:01:09

sitting next to sue for many years and watching over

00:53:01:11 – 00:53:05:23

her shoulder, probably more than she even realized.

00:53:09:02 – 00:53:11:26

Yeah, I would. She taught me just a lot of very simple

00:53:12:02 – 00:53:14:15

techniques that I think I mean, she teaches them in a lot of

00:53:14:17 – 00:53:16:16

her Photoshop classes, just

00:53:17:10 – 00:53:19:08

cloning and, you know, the

00:53:19:10 – 00:53:20:02

the copy

00:53:20:04 – 00:53:21:27

paste and then warping to

00:53:22:19 – 00:53:25:00

just little little techniques like

00:53:25:02 – 00:53:30:04

that. I just kind of applied over time. But also watching Richard

00:53:30:06 – 00:53:32:01

Wood was really

00:53:32:06 – 00:53:33:04

inspiring as well.

00:53:33:06 – 00:53:38:00

But mostly, I credit Sue for further learning Photoshop.

00:53:38:23 – 00:53:55:00

Yeah, it’s just so inspiring. All the like. Millions of things it seems like you’ve learned from Sue. And also like, yeah, we as a community also get to, you know, learn all that stuff. Sometimes we just need to rewatch some of those videos because me on there are a lot of videos to watch.

00:53:55:20 – 00:54:02:12

And it’s it’s impossible to go through all of them. And, you know, like it takes like years to go through it all.

00:54:03:07 – 00:54:08:15

I know. I think there’s still videos that I haven’t watched yet, seems to so many of them.

00:54:10:13 – 00:54:15:03

You have a promo video, I believe, on the SBE Library as well, is that correct?

00:54:15:26 – 00:54:17:28

Oh yes. Yeah, I did like a

00:54:18:00 – 00:54:28:11

lesson on how to film a behind the scenes video for your photoshoot, and it’s something great that if you have an assistant or friend or a makeup artist or

00:54:28:13 – 00:54:32:19

somebody who’s there with you in your shoots, I would encourage you to have them,

00:54:32:21 – 00:54:33:06

have them

00:54:33:08 – 00:54:34:24

watch it because it really

00:54:34:26 – 00:54:36:21

shows kind of my thought process

00:54:36:23 – 00:54:38:15

in working with a photographer

00:54:38:17 – 00:54:42:26

and filming behind the scenes footage for them. And then we also

00:54:42:28 – 00:54:44:29

brought you through in the

00:54:45:01 – 00:54:53:19

same lesson I’ll bring you through three different editing programs. I think I did one video on an Animoto, which is kind of like the beginner

00:54:53:21 – 00:54:56:14

level, an intermediate level with

00:54:56:16 – 00:55:00:03

iMovie and then an advanced level with Adobe Premiere. And we added

00:55:00:05 – 00:55:03:21

the same video in three different platforms. So it’s a cool it’s cool lesson.

00:55:04:11 – 00:55:06:11

If you guys haven’t checked it out, I’d definitely check it out.

00:55:06:26 – 00:55:10:27

I watched it a long time ago, but now I’m like, I usually watch that because

00:55:11:12 – 00:55:16:15

I know some things have changed. I think slightly since then, like in iMovie and stuff.

00:55:16:17 – 00:55:21:07

So maybe, maybe we’ll have to update it soon. But but most of the

00:55:21:09 – 00:55:26:03

techniques and and everything that I would think about on a daily basis are in there.

00:55:27:11 – 00:55:42:19

That’s so cool. Yeah, it’s just such a good reminder, like, I mean, video is king, which I feel like has been one of the big topics in this conversation, and any way we can all improve on our video skills is just going to be so powerful in our marketing. Yeah, everything.

00:55:43:03 – 00:55:46:10

And even if it’s even if it’s just some iPhone video,

00:55:46:18 – 00:55:48:05

you know, just having

00:55:48:07 – 00:55:50:20

some type of video content on your

00:55:50:22 – 00:56:01:01

page and that shows how you how you do what you do, I think is just such a it’s so powerful, especially on social media. So like even if you’re just taking

00:56:01:10 – 00:56:02:13

iPhone videos

00:56:03:12 – 00:56:04:22

throughout a photo shoot and

00:56:04:24 – 00:56:06:23

like, that’s enough, you know, don’t stress

00:56:06:25 – 00:56:10:06

yourself out, just just do just do a little bit to

00:56:10:08 – 00:56:15:26

start and then start seeing what happens from that and build on it. But yeah, for

00:56:15:28 – 00:56:26:09

anyone who is looking for it, it’s titled making a promo VIDEO And that’s under marketing in the SBE library. So no excuses, folks. Even making videos.

00:56:29:08 – 00:56:37:21

Well, let’s see. It is we have reached the one hour mark of our interview and it has been absolutely fantastic hearing from you Cait

00:56:39:22 – 00:56:48:06

so much good information. But before we let you go, if you can, please share your socials with us and let people know where they can find you.

00:56:48:21 – 00:56:50:01

Yes, absolutely.

00:56:50:09 – 00:57:01:19

My socials are on Instagram. I’m at her name is Cait. And then if you want to check out social motion packs, that’s at social packs just when one big, long string.

00:57:02:01 – 00:57:04:18

Fantastic. The website is the same.

00:57:04:20 – 00:57:08:10

Oh yes. Sorry, yeah, it’s social. Social Motion Packs.com

00:57:09:07 – 00:57:44:03

Yes, fantastic. Everyone, please, please, please be sure to go for Cait and everyone. Please be sure to follow the Portrait System on Instagram and on Facebook as well. Also, be sure to check out the blog posts that are associated with our Clubhouse interviews at SueBryceEducation.com /blog. You can follow Ashleigh on Instagram at Ashleigh Taylor Portrait. That is, as h l e i g h and you can find me as PopLight_ photography. If you are a member of Sue Bryce Education and you have more questions for Cait, Ashleigh or myself, go tag us in a post in the SBE members only Facebook group.

00:57:44:14 – 00:57:58:21

And if you are not a member of Sue Bryce Education and you are interested in learning more about how it can help your business succeed. Email Ella at Support at Support@SueBryceEducation.com. Thank you again for joining us, and we hope you can join us next week.

Thanks again for listening today. And don’t forget, you can listen to either me or our special guests every Friday on Club House at 11:00 a.m. Pacific. Thank you so much for listening to the Portrait System Podcast. Your five-star reviews really help us to continue what we do. So, if you like listening, would you mind giving us a review wherever you listen? I also encourage you to head over to SueBryceEducation.com, where you can find all of the education you need to be a successful photographer. There are over 1,000 on-demand educational videos on things like posing, lighting, styling, retouching, shooting, marketing, sales, business, and self-value

There’s also the 90 Day Startup Challenge, plus so many downloads showing hundreds of different poses. We have to-do checklists for your business, lighting PDFs, I mean truly everything to help make you a better photographer and to make you more money. Once again, that’s SueBryceEducation.com