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

00:00:01:04 – 00:00:28:29

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, everyone. On today’s clubhouse

00:00:29:01 – 00:00:50:08

episode, we have your host, Kevin Conde and Ashleigh Taylor, along with David Suh. He is back on the podcast to answer more questions about Tik-Tok and how Tik-Tok has contributed to his success, how he grew his following and just all things Tik-Tok and how it can help your business. OK. Please enjoy. David, Kevin and Ashleigh,

00:00:50:28 – 00:01:24:25

welcome everyone to the Portrait System Podcast Club. My name is Kevin Conde and I’m here with my co-host, Ashleigh Taylor. If you are not familiar with the Portrait system, we are a portrait photography podcast that is powered by Sue Bryce Education. Nikki Closser hosts our regular Monday episode, and Ashleigh and I co-host our clubhouse edition, which is live here on the clubhouse app every Friday at noon Pacific except today. And then our episodes are released on Thursdays. You can tune in on your favorite podcast app by searching for the portrait system.

00:01:25:12 – 00:01:27:02

Ashleigh, how are you doing today?

00:01:27:15 – 00:01:55:09

I am good, Kevin. I’m so excited to be here. Cohosting again with you. And I am so excited to introduce our guest for today, the, one the only David Suh. David is an SBA alumni. You guys may have seen him in the men’s intensive workshop on race education. And of course, he’s also a Tik-Tok megastar. So we’re so excited to have you. David, welcome.

00:01:56:00 – 00:02:01:13

Hi. What an intro. Tik-Tok megastar. I don’t know

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Yeah. No pressure or anything. We’re just

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just setting a high bar right off the bat.

00:02:12:21 – 00:02:17:27

Welcome to the podcast. David we are so happy and excited to have you on.

00:02:19:13 – 00:02:52:16

I’m personally not on Tik-Tok, but I do listen to every episode of the Porrait System podcast, and I love hearing about men’s perspectives of building a photography business that revolves around making the everyday woman feel special and seen and the process and steps that they take to make it happen. Right after your episode with Nikki. I ran to all your social media. I followed you and I watched all your pretty much all your videos that you have posted and love everything you have.

00:02:53:02 – 00:02:59:19

So aside from your charisma and your energy, that lights up a room. Let’s talk about what else you’re known for in Tik-Tok.

00:03:01:06 – 00:03:28:07

So there are a lot of photography business owners that are tired of having to learn new social media. They have their Facebook, they have their Instagram. And now over the last couple of years, you’ve seen Tik-Tok rise to popularity for those that haven’t delved into it yet. Can you explain what is happening on Tik-Tok, how it works and what benefits they might see from actually having an account as a business owner?

00:03:29:25 – 00:04:03:02

So what I love about Tik-Tok is that any one of your videos that you post can have an even more enormous reach. And so we usually don’t find that with these platforms that are part of an existing way before like Facebook and Instagram. And to me now, I treat my Instagram a lot more like a community. I’m sustaining the community know, giving them things to talk about and things like that.

00:04:03:09 – 00:04:17:19

But if I want to grow the community, it’s hard to do that on Instagram. I’m sure a lot of people here have found that as well, because it’s just the the reach isn’t there. Right. You have to either get a big shout off or someone else

00:04:19:05 – 00:04:21:22

is going to.

00:04:23:23 – 00:04:44:16

For me, I just wanted to simply share the joys of what I do and which, again, everyone here, I’m sure we love what we do and so easy for us to share. I think we overthink a little too much sometimes. And that’s a great thing about Tik-Tok, is that any video that you post, we don’t know. You can really become a star tomorrow

00:04:46:18 – 00:05:17:29

and that just won’t happen on any of the other platforms. So I always say, like, hey, like one video can literally change your life on take off and it won’t like any other platform won’t offer that. I always, always say, hey, like just post something that doesn’t matter. It could be else who had a Facebook post about people pointing at the screen on Tik-Tok and things coming up. But you could do that, too. You could do that. That could blow up honestly.

00:05:18:01 – 00:05:53:29

Like you maybe maybe you dropping your camera and you’re caught on video. Just upload that and say like, oh, this one time I felt like my world was about to end and I could blow up, too. You don’t know what’s going to blow up and it can. And it’s changed a life for so many people. There is like musicians that we’re creating music during the pandemic time that are like on Billboard charts now and then for me as well. Like, I’m I. I still can’t believe every day and my business is thriving, just thinking about where it was going into the pandemic.

00:05:54:12 – 00:06:00:02

But now it’s just a stark difference. So, yeah, that’s that’s a big thing about Tik-Tok.

00:06:01:03 – 00:06:11:14

Was there one video for you that was like the game changer, like can you pin point, though, one video that just changed my life, took off for you, went viral like the first one.

00:06:11:29 – 00:06:23:28

Yeah, I think it was it was my first I don’t even know how I got to this. I’m like, dang David, you got pretty creative with this one.

00:06:25:18 – 00:06:55:28

It was me. I was like my first time ever portraying me as a photographer. Teaching a shy client, how to get out of their shell and become like an absolute badass. Right. And like, it’s like a funny skit with a song that was popular about a year ago on Tik-Tok and this trending. And it was I was role playing as me as a photographer. I’d be like, hey, come on, come out behind the backdrop. And then I got into character, too.

00:06:56:00 – 00:07:31:19

So it was my first time reading this big tulle skirt that we all love. And then Sue’s Facebook group, and I’m running a big flower crown to come out of the backdrop saying I as the shy client, and then I’m sort of posing the client and then she’s sort of doing it. And then when the beat drops, she becomes like this absolute Queen. Slow motion trolling the trust and things like that. And again, like things like that, we witness all the time. It’s with photographers. And, you know, it was just like, oh, very funny to match that to a song.

00:07:31:21 – 00:07:34:01

And I think this was the first time it took off.

00:07:34:28 – 00:08:11:04

Yeah, I love that. I feel like one of the things that, like, I feel a lot when I talk to people about, you know, using Tik-Tok or reels, which is like the Instagram version, of course, is like, how do you even come up with these ideas? I think for most, like photographers, it’s like we’re yes. Like we know, like you said, like what our clients experience, but putting it in, like video clip, snappy format. And then also, you know, that whole trending audio piece, those are hard concepts for people to figure out.

00:08:11:06 – 00:08:21:09

Like, do you have any advice for like how do you like. Yeah. How do you generate ideas? How do you figure out what audio could be like a good fit for something.

00:08:22:21 – 00:08:57:23

Yeah, I mean obviously in the beginning it’s going to be tough at the beginning. It’s always going to feel like the hardest part. But once you do it you get the hang of it and that comes with like, you know, one thing that makes Tick-Tock really easy once you get going just a little bit is that people will ask you questions because obviously we’re going to be framing ourselves as professional. This is what we do and people have questions for you. And that’s like the that’s like what I really love about technology that no other platform does as well is interactiveness between the creator and the consumer.

00:08:58:13 – 00:09:06:26

People can ask you a question and you can reply to that question, of course, as a comment. But you can also reply to it as a video.

00:09:09:08 – 00:09:39:25

If someone said, David, how might pose in a mini skirt and there is an instance from a miniskirt and made do one hundred thousand a mini skirt, now you don’t need to put on a mini skirt. But again, just highlighting the fact that there’s it’s back and forth. You can also there’s a feature called Duet and Stitching on Tick-Tock where you’re really just interacting with someone on video. So, you know, if you’re if you’re watching on Tik-Tok and someone talking about photography.

00:09:40:24 – 00:10:12:02

I’m sure there’s something you can, like, put your two cents on, maybe it’s like, hey, how come I see this video all the time? Hey, how come I always look good in person, but in photos I always look like this? Or how come my and my friends take a photo of me, always looks like this and then you can quote unquote stitch that video. And then give you two cents on and saying, hey, I’m a professional professional photographer and this is my thoughts on this, and you don’t need any, quote unquote, organic creative juices to make something like that.

00:10:12:19 – 00:10:38:28

Right. But as you get into the habit of creating and then also just watching, just tick tock as well, seeing all these really fabulous things people are doing out there. And once we get our head thinking it’s just a platform of young girls dancing, there is a place for everyone to think all different backgrounds, everything serious, everything goofy, and you can create some really cool things from them.

00:10:40:00 – 00:10:57:24

So are you looking towards other photographers on the platform to help your creative process, or do you feel like that’s too much like following a trend? Or how else are you drawing inspiration from the content that you’re seeing?

00:10:59:06 – 00:11:13:00

Yeah, so I talked a little bit about that. I think on with Nikki is that. You know the advice I gave other photographers is to do not follow the other photographer accounts.

00:11:14:18 – 00:11:59:24

I mean, we have an Instagram all the time. What do we do on it’s like we post our best photos of our clients. Right. And we follow all the photographers. And all they do is, again, post their portfolio pieces, their recent clients, all the media behind the scenes. If we’re lucky, we get to see that. But. You know, only it just really becomes about who’s got the better images. And then we got to ask ourselves who’s really looking at our content? And I think at that point, it’s actually more so for photographers than possible clients, right? And if we’re building our brand, we have to think about our audience, too.

00:11:59:26 – 00:12:31:05

And we got to realize that, like for me, I was only thinking of my audience being possible clients. I never knew posing could be something that people all around the world or at this point, the crazy number of three point one million people would enjoy seeing. And, you know, if I kept telling myself all these photos I post, this content I post is only for possible clients, then I wouldn’t have the platform I have now.

00:12:32:21 – 00:13:14:10

So not only going back to the question, like not following other photographers, because if you were to follow what the basic photographer is doing on Tik-Tok, you will be creating you’ll be posting a little behind the scenes video of you shooting. That’s been a camera that’s been set up on the tripod of a trending song like Peaches by Justin Bieber. And then at the end, you guys show a lower result. And that’s going to be all of your content, right? That’s literally what we see on Instagram Vine. Tik-Tok. So, again, going out of the way to draw inspiration from the actual popular content on Tik-Tok and not while photographers are doing is what I would suggest.

00:13:14:12 – 00:13:15:01

And that’s what I do.

00:13:16:06 – 00:13:53:00

Yeah, I think that’s really good advice because I think that that advice can carry not just like in Tik-Tok, but everything like sometimes with photographers we just copy each other is priceless. We copy each other’s websites, we copyeach other’s messaging. And it’s like, you know, I think you’re most successful when you speak to your authentic, like why you’re doing this, whether it’s on your website, whether it’s on a Tik-Tok video. Right. Like, I think photographers need to get in the habit of stop looking at everyone else, everyone else in the industry and like, really finding our own style in our own voice.

00:13:53:02 – 00:14:17:25

So I really love that you’re seeing that with tick tock. Can I ask another somewhat technical question? But it is something that I get a lot of pushback on when I, like, encourage people to make more reels is just the time. Like how do you because people go, oh, God, I need one Tik-Tok or one reel that took like five hours of my life.

00:14:17:27 – 00:14:18:13

And what

00:14:20:14 – 00:14:28:24

is it? Do you batch them like do you storyboard ahead of time? Like what do you do to make it not life consuming?

00:14:29:06 – 00:14:59:27

I don’t know. I just I just feel like, again, it’s so funny. I actually just told this to my client to to because he’s in real estate. He didn’t come from real estate, but he was just talking about what he does and stuff like that. And he was like, well, how is your business doing? And things like that. And it’s going so well. But the funny thing is sometimes I would get these comments on my Tik-Tok from people who obviously run a small business of some sort and they say, oh, my gosh, David, this is this is amazing marketing, David.

00:15:00:10 – 00:15:23:09

I’m like, oh, man, I’ve never seen this as marketing for myself. If you look at my Tik-Tok take, I remember the last time I ever said, hey, come Book a shoot with me or even mention me as really a professional photographer and my service or where I’m located. That’s probably I probably mentioned that a couple more times when I was first starting on during the pandemic that I needed to get some

00:15:24:26 – 00:15:56:11

pre-booking is just a little bit more so I can survive, but I don’t see it as marketing. It’s again, I just I love what I do, you know, I love what I do is kind of like you give all the time is if you find your new favorite ice cream flavor or a shop I opened up near you, what are you going to do? You got going to share it. If you love it that much, you’re going to go to your friend. You go to your partner, your family, bring them a cup or bring them there and say, oh, my gosh, my treat. This is so amazing. And like we need to treat what we do the same way because we love what we do.

00:15:56:13 – 00:16:25:15

And hopefully we do love that. And, you know, it’s really become easy to do. And if it takes five hours, it took five hours. But you love doing it because you’ve got to share it with other people. And the moment you think of it as marketing, it’s like, oh, my goodness, I had to put five hours into marketing. And then you think of R y and then you’re like, oh, like two people saw this. Oh no, this is terrible. It never works. And then you go on Facebook telling everyone else that IG reels such and then

00:16:27:18 – 00:16:29:04

everything’s downhill from there.

00:16:29:18 – 00:16:57:21

Yeah. So it seems like it’s really, truly a creative outlet for you and not like it wasn’t ever the intention to necessarily like a bazillion clients off of it. It was just like, I love putting these videos together and I want to share my joy with the world. And like, that’s more how people should find their joy in content creation rather than like the like the grind of it. I get the feeling like they have to do it.

00:16:58:02 – 00:17:30:20

Yeah. It’s certainly you can see it as a business model because content creators make a full time living. So I think if you truly are going to see it, I was like, oh, business time then you have to realize like it takes a lot of time. If you can actually see it as a business, it will take a lot of time. I’ll tell you that. I don’t know if you know this tech reviewer on YouTube, his name is Marcus Brown Lee is really huge. He’s probably like the biggest he has.

00:17:30:22 – 00:18:00:29

Probably the biggest corner for tech reviewing on YouTube, and it’s you have to search his video from when he first started, he was like 15 is like boys didn’t even like mature kid voice like this. And his 100th video, you watch his 100th video and then he’s still 15 and he’s saying, thank you, guys. Everyone, this is my hundredth video. I just want thank all my twenty subscribers for supporting me.

00:18:01:04 – 00:18:21:12

And then now fast forward like ten years. He has his own, like, building and studio employing ten people and it’s like it takes time if you want to go that direction, know that. So you don’t burn yourself off by thinking you’re going to make a one one hit wonder by putting in five hours.

00:18:22:07 – 00:18:24:15

Love me some MKB HD there. David,

00:18:27:12 – 00:18:45:14

you have an assistant named Lucetta. Yes. She does a fantastic job being on screen with you to be able to create the content that you do as well as run your business. Do you feel that an assistant is mandatory to be able to do what you do as a photographer

00:18:47:00 – 00:18:51:28

and do you believe someone is? Or do you believe someone is able to do what you do on your own?

00:18:52:23 – 00:19:06:19

I was just getting to a place where I was like, there’s just too much work, and as I grow as a content creator, so now I have two careers, not just a small business owner of a photographer, but a content creator as well.

00:19:08:29 – 00:19:33:16

But even like when I was just drawing on Tik-Tok of a couple hundred thousand followers, I was just like, this is too much work and I couldn’t really comprehend it. It was just a lot of work to me. It was a feeling right that I couldn’t I try to write it down on paper, like, where am I spending lots of time and things like that. But at the end of the day, I needed help. So, you know, like if you’re growing to that point where

00:19:35:10 – 00:20:02:28

your your schedule is full, just imagine being booked out for the next three or four months. And then you want to keep growing your your tick tock following or whatever it is like. It doesn’t even have to be content creating. Maybe it’s another passion. If you want to keep creating that, then of course we’ve got to find more time for ourselves. Right. So, you know, of course, allocating time and having someone help us out is really beneficial and Lucero does that for me.

00:20:04:20 – 00:20:17:20

So I wanted to ask you, with everything that you’re doing, what are you personally handling and what else are you outsourcing to other places because you are just so busy.

00:20:19:03 – 00:20:53:03

So Lucero takes all the inquiry calls and right now she’s taking my style consults to we’re experimenting with me, transitioning into that. Again, that could be a different topic if you do want to expand on that. But right now, she’s taking inquiry calls, the style consults, and then she’s packaging all the boxes. You know, I, I like giving my clients the box but I didn’t necessarily, like, just putting in the hours, just taking them off and everything.

00:20:53:05 – 00:20:59:13

The product is ordering everything. And as I say, this has happened. So

00:21:01:02 – 00:21:10:22

and then for me, I also outsource my editing and I was on I do the final color grading on the images.

00:21:12:23 – 00:21:20:23

This really allows me to just focus on serving my clients and the shoots, creating more content and focusing on my clients and create a career.

00:21:22:11 – 00:21:30:25

I also do have a part time like project manager because there’s a lot of projecta I’m working on that’s really more sort for the content creator side of things.

00:21:32:04 – 00:22:04:28

Do you feel like your clients are super excited to work with you? Are they super excited to work with Lucero because they see her on your Tik-Tok or like, do you feel like they’re kind of like, oh, but I thought David was going to, like, hold my hand through this. And I found him on and like, I want to know I want to like men like me because I ask that question because we had Bethany Johs on maybe a few months ago and she was saying how booked up she was and how crazy she was.

00:22:05:08 – 00:22:32:01

And but then she was saying that she didn’t want to outsource a lot of the client interaction work pre shoot because she felt like they were paying to get Stephanie. And it would be like a disappointment. And I know everyone has their own opinion and what works best for them. But I was just curious, because I’m sure with you, you know, having people found you on Tik-Tok, but they’re probably just so excited to get to meet you and maybe a little starstruck. So, yeah. If you could speak to that.

00:22:32:16 – 00:23:02:23

Well, Lucero has definitely become her own character and and people even recognize her on the street, even just by herself. She went, oh, wow. Yeah, she went to a cafe and she was like, oh my gosh, are you you work with that photographer like you’re Lucero. And she’s like, you know, she’s she’s never to want to, like, have a big ego. So she’s always like, no, David, no one knows me, but for sure, everyone knows her and everyone loves her.

00:23:02:25 – 00:23:12:04

And even on my stories, on my Instagram, like if we do any, like, fun little competition, like who took the photo better like she is, she’s always winning. No doubt

00:23:14:11 – 00:23:47:27

people love her. She’s always first before me among the community. So in that regards, it’s not really like I made it a big deal to let everyone know about Lucero. And she’s exactly who she is on camera, and in person. So people love her. It’s really hard to not get along with Lucero. So yeah. But I also think about expanding the team further. I thought about, oh, OK, now what happens if a new character is introduced and it’s not Lucero

00:23:49:12 – 00:24:23:29

for. I don’t know, but I mean, it’s worked on. The really cool thing is that I think my community and my followers respect my time. They know, like David can’t take all the calls. David isn’t. I don’t think they expect all of that. Yeah. And yeah. Also built into the system, too. Right. So like when they go to my website, it says Lucero will be speaking with you. And when you schedule a time, the confirmation email is from Lucero and she says, hey, I’m Lucero, I’ll be taking care of you throughout this whole process.

00:24:24:03 – 00:24:28:22

I’ll be and here’s how to prep for our call. So they’re never just, like, surprised.

00:24:29:14 – 00:24:44:13

Yeah, I think that’s such a huge thing. Just education and front loading with people and like you said, having a system, because as long as it seems like that’s the way it’s supposed to go down, people are always like, you know, they’re like, oh, that makes sense. Of course,

00:24:46:15 – 00:25:07:24

when people like when photographers don’t actually have a system set up, then that’s when, like, expectations start not getting met and clients start getting feeling disappointed about things. So I think it’s really cool that you include her and all that like client facing interactions before and so that people know what to expect.

00:25:08:15 – 00:25:27:20

So with the clients that you’re you’re booking now, are you finding that they are clients that are seeing you on Tik-Tok and Instagram who would already know who Lucero is and would be OK dealing with her or you still finding people in your area that we’re like, oh, you know, we heard or we saw

00:25:29:05 – 00:25:34:06

someone say that you were a good photographer and we should work with you, maybe not even knowing who you are.

00:25:36:09 – 00:25:40:07

So is a question more so like are people coming from Tik-Tok or just like locally?

00:25:41:13 – 00:26:00:24

Whether people the people are finding and booking with you, is it that they already know you and the people that you surround yourself with Lucero via Tik-Tok, or that people that have never even seen any of your content online but have might have heard word of mouth that you’re a photographer to be?

00:26:02:10 – 00:26:33:21

I mean, I definitely think it’s it’s like people that know me and they know me, most likely they know Lucero she hasn’t appeared on my Tik-Tok too much lately. So maybe those people finding me now on tick tock that don’t know about this are all too much. But again, like, you know, when they come onto my website, it’s quite a professional website. Hopefully it seems like that to me. Know, I don’t think they’re going to be like, oh, they’re like they’re not going to get mad that it’s not me running the whole thing.

00:26:34:23 – 00:27:11:09

I really don’t think that’s like a big deal about like and then versus like the people that don’t know about me and got recommended, that’s probably more so clients. But clients, again, that came from ticktock and that their clients that came from Tik-Tok, they probably sent their friends. My Tik-Tok so they have some point become some sort of fans as well. And they always get so excited to see their their friends get their photos from me. So yeah, like I would say, like ninety five percent of my clients are from social media and and then from there, like word of mouth just from their like friends and stuff.

00:27:12:08 – 00:27:30:11

Yeah, I could see how also once someone if they were originally like a Tik-Tok client, would totally send the videos, because just like last week, I was with my friend in Hawaii who probably saw me get tagged in a bunch of your videos because I was like, oh, I’m interviewing David. Have you heard of these videos. He’s Koreans? So she’s like,

00:27:32:07 – 00:27:32:24

all over it

00:27:35:21 – 00:27:45:14

And then she was like tagging me. I was like, oh my gosh, this is so funny. It’s very addictive. Like, what is your video? They’re going to, like, tag their best friends and be like,

00:27:45:16 – 00:27:46:01

yeah,

00:27:46:03 – 00:27:49:12

girl, check this one out. I think that

00:27:51:07 – 00:28:28:10

that’s what I want to touch on real quick. It’s like, you know, like when we love when we watch our own behavior, when we like, consume content, like we want to share things that make us happy or something we learn. And, you know, if you just think of the top of your head, what you share, it might be like a cat cuddling, you know, or it might be like a funny video. And those are the things that we share. So it’s like, again, going back to my point earlier, the ways we create right now, it’s like this industry of photographers and especially on Instagram, again, like, you know, like.

00:28:28:12 – 00:28:53:08

Yeah, like people want to see our beautiful work, but like, how many times do we really want to like how how often are we truly sharing, like photographs all the time. So it’s like create something out on top of the photo. Beautiful photo. Maybe share a story or you share a funny story. I think we really need to like get creative with that little bit. Expand beyond that.

00:28:53:27 – 00:29:07:26

Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think like what’s so great about your videos too is they’re just so funny. So like I was like when it looked like we were dying and you had. What about the plant. Like Mommy, daddy poses. Oh no

00:29:11:27 – 00:29:13:01

We were like dead. We were cracking up really.

00:29:14:27 – 00:29:18:01

What you get you went real deep. We went real deep.

00:29:22:03 – 00:29:50:18

We have reached that point in the lives where we opened it up to audience Q&A. So if you are listening and you have a question for David about portrait photography or tick tock or anything, you can go ahead and hit the little hand icon in the lower right hand part of your screen, and then we can bring you up on stage to ask your question while we’re waiting for questions to roll in. I will toss it to Kevin.

00:29:51:16 – 00:30:15:24

Thank you. So, David, part of your content creation for Tick Tock has not only been of you doing posing tips, but also doing makeup makeovers, Lucero and yourself. You’ve done self portraits as a K pop artist, an E boy. You’ve done the dresses and you’ve done your implied nude photo shoot, which has been your favorite up to this point.

00:30:16:16 – 00:30:17:28

Oh, boy.

00:30:20:05 – 00:30:40:21

The this little sentiment of the first one, the K pop, that’s when I that’s the first one I took like my self portraits really seriously. And with every one of my shoots, there’s always some sort of deeper meaning to it’s not that I necessarily show it all the time, but just for me and like the like the implied nudes,

00:30:42:09 – 00:31:02:29

you know, that’s made it a thing to do it every year on my birthday. But, you know, like, it’s really it’s truly a powerful empowering and because I really got to see and feel what my clients feel or as close as possible on their on their shoot day. And, you know, I got to see all these things that

00:31:05:03 – 00:31:44:24

I might not like about myself that I don’t confront every day. I’m thinking, dang wow, I didn’t know I had that sort of insecurity. And, you know, I realize, again, it all ties back, like why I love portraits and to explore. And, you know, when someone photograph, whether it’s as casual as a phone photo on the streets to a professional shoot, if they tell me that they don’t like how their hand looks or their arm looks, you know, I’m not the one to be I shouldn’t be the one to be like, oh, no, your hand does look good or combat it in that sense of just like denying their feelings

00:31:46:20 – 00:32:01:08

for me to be in the experience of seeing my own insecurity, like, OK, like, you know, I know it exists and I’ll work on it, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not beautiful in that moment. So let’s take a photo that I think is beautiful.

00:32:02:29 – 00:32:11:20

So, yeah, I mean, like, I guess like the implied nude or like the birthday suit photos. I know it’s become a beautiful thing for me.

00:32:12:29 – 00:32:18:05

Oh, I love that we do have a question from David Francos at the meeting of the Davids.

00:32:19:22 – 00:32:24:25

So David, why don’t you David Franco, why don’t you un-mute yourself and ask your question?

00:32:25:08 – 00:32:26:17

Sure. Hey, David.

00:32:28:17 – 00:33:00:21

Yeah, I’m based out of Los Angeles. I just have a quick question. So basically, I didn’t really jump on Instagram when it first came out. I was kind of one of those photographers that kind of thought of it A like, oh, it’s just influencers, it’s just this and that. And I never really took social media seriously until I started realizing how powerful it really is. And I guess my question to you is, when you joined Tik-Tok, did you already have Instagram following or Instagram following come from your very fun and addictive Tick-Tock?

00:33:02:21 – 00:33:35:11

It definitely came from tick tock. Oh, man, I wish maybe maybe Lucero can help me, but I think I had like two thousand followers, maybe four thousand max. I sometimes I don’t pay attention to my Instagram following the audience, focusing on Tik-Tok. But if I do stop and think about it, I’m like, oh my gosh, that’s really come a long way. But to get to your question, yes, I didn’t have a big following, just like two thousand or 4000. I’m really glad to hear that because I feel like I kind of missed the boat on Instagram.

00:33:35:13 – 00:34:09:27

I feel like getting engagement from the ground up. Like, if you’re strictly on Instagram, it’s just so difficult nowadays, especially with Instagram kind of becoming this like, you know, video sharing platform instead of specifically for photography. So I’m going to start having other social media platforms to start building up a community that way. And then hopefully it kind of builds up my other accounts and stuff because I again, I never really took social media that seriously until I started realizing, like, wow, like I should be interacting with people and not just anyway.

00:34:10:00 – 00:34:45:00

But the thing is David unless unless you unless you hopped on Instagram like ten years ago might have done even before I maybe like 15 years ago when it first came out, then you already missed the boat. So like I have a feeling everyone here probably missed the boat unless you have like a couple of million followers on it. It’s like, yeah, the thing is, like in that perspective, you’re not late. And the really cool thing about Instagram now is that they  have Instagram reels what’s cool and not cool, but they have Instagram reels.

00:34:45:02 – 00:35:20:06

And right now I’ve been looking at my like these days I’ve been looking at my Instagram like metrics too. And it’s been growing super fast as I was. I just passed 200 K yesterday. And then if I look right now to thank you, if I look right now, I have an extra 10K followers and I swear it wasn’t that fast before. But you know what the interesting thing is like? I repost pretty much all of my Tik-Tok and my second ladies and sixth latest Instagram.

00:35:20:08 – 00:35:55:26

all have one million and two million views right now. And again, it’s really absurd because sometimes I get less views on my tick tock video, the same video, less viewes on Tik-Tok than on Instagram real. Oh, wow, that’s interesting. Yeah. So, you know, like Instagram, obviously, like they’re all competing against each other. That’s why I said, like, it’s cool, not cool because I can’t think from each other. But I mean the cool part is on Instagram is really bringing through of these organic views to Instagram, which didn’t exist.

00:35:55:28 – 00:36:07:19

Right. So if you really want to grow, then focus on Instagram reels. sorry. Yeah, right, right, right, cool. I appreciate your insight. Thank you. Yeah.

00:36:09:01 – 00:36:13:27

We do have another question from Tony. Tony, you can go ahead and meet yourself and ask your question.

00:36:15:10 – 00:36:30:07

Hey, David, how are you? I’m a big fan, I follow you on tick tock, that’s how I found you. So I was really excited when I saw you coming on here on SBE. I’m a fellow S.B Eer myself. I am in the Bay Area. So it’s really cool that you’re just like a couple hours away from me.

00:36:31:23 – 00:36:50:06

I wanted to know are you probably might have answered this more in detail, but how do you plan your content ahead of time or do you do it more so like on a weekly basis, on a daily basis, or do you plan your self portraits around that? I would love to know what your process is like in the actual like, um, like producing the content part.

00:36:50:27 – 00:37:24:24

Yeah, it’s so spontaneous. Like there are moments where I like plan here and there. A lot of my inspiration might come when I’m showering and other times I’m just scrolling and I see a video and it’s like maybe it’s more of an interactive video that I want to respond to. Maybe someone’s asking how do you pose like this? And then I stitch that in Tik-Tok lingo. So like in those cases, I would write it down and I might have a little idea bank.

00:37:24:27 – 00:37:56:19

But like for yesterday examples like as example, like eight or nine, like it was like 8pm in bed. I was tired at dinner and I was just scrolling through Tik-Tok. I would take a little break and I thought as one video and I had the biggest idea that came to me. But that hasn’t happened in a while. Oh my gosh, I’m going to run to the studio and make this right now at eight p.m.. And that was like a little hesitation was like, if I don’t do this, I know I’m not going to do it.

00:37:56:21 – 00:38:32:06

I already have other stuff that I want to make. I just like my studio is granted like three blocks down. But I rented a studio and I don’t know if anyone saw my content yesterday. It’s kind of a funny content. I was like on the ground on my knees trying to film this like forty second one, take a shot of me, sort of like doing this dialogue that I thought of and it took like two hours for this one forty seconds that I kept messing up, but I was proud of it at the end.

00:38:32:11 – 00:38:43:23

And yeah that it’s very spontaneous. Lucero isn’t here too. But she knowa, I’m very spontaneous. I’m like this. I don’t want to make this like OK,

00:38:45:15 – 00:38:50:25

time she helps out or other times like yesterday night I’m playing on a tripod and doing it myself.

00:38:51:27 – 00:39:13:27

And if I could ask another quick question, if that’s all right with the monitors, like super quick, I also want to know, like, have you dealt with, like, burnout because you’re doing so much and like, you are producing so much great content, you’re doing really great work. Do you ever feel like there’s moments where you feel like you just need to hit pause or you just need to like kind of break and what do you do to kind of revamp yourself?

00:39:15:26 – 00:39:53:13

I just I just stop making content if I feel burnt out. It’s like my YouTube. I feel a little burnt out right now that I sort of collaboration video that took a lot of time and money to make. And I was like, oh, you know, it’s going to take a break. I don’t even see it as a break. I’m just like, you know, and like for my YouTube, I do have it on my banner, like video every Thursday. I’m like, you know, it’s OK. And Tik-Tok there’s no schedule for me, like I say, a rule of thumb for me, just like a video day.

00:39:54:29 – 00:40:21:19

But sometimes that’s two or three videos a day and other times it’s no video for a couple of days. If I’m traveling and I’m just I’m OK. Yeah, but that’s again, because I’m not seeing it as like marketing like off. Earlier on, I was like, oh my gosh, it’s a part of the business model. Right? My marketing director is getting on top of me. Then it’s like, you know, I don’t have a marketing director, but I’m the

00:40:23:10 – 00:40:34:25

marketing director, you know? But if you treat it that way, then yeah. But at least for me, they didn’t start that way and start the foundation. So I just quit as I go. It’s it’s fun that way.

00:40:35:14 – 00:40:38:15

That’s really great. Thanks for sharing David. Appreciate it. Thank you. moderators

00:40:38:28 – 00:40:47:12

Thank you,. Always good to see you people. All right. Let’s see. We have another question from Hannah. If you’re going to meet yourself and go in and ask David.

00:40:48:18 – 00:41:18:27

Hey, guys. Hi, David. I’m also a fan of your Tik-Tok  and I love the videos for them. You have that duck  sound at the end. I think it’s like ten times. So, so much fun. Funny. But with such a huge following that you have, how do you handle people with like negative negative energy or negative comments like the haters? Because I have a tick tock and it just started it. And it’s just really for portraits.

00:41:19:09 – 00:41:33:26

There was one person who said, nobody cares. And I was like, oh, let me just block you, because I know that energy for you that you have such a huge following. How do you handle that? I’m so curious.

00:41:36:24 – 00:41:38:06

Mean,

00:41:40:04 – 00:41:46:00

I don’t know if I handle it well. I just like I just try to ignore it.

00:41:47:16 – 00:41:52:23

It’s funny because I always say Lucero is sort of like my emotional support to o

00:41:54:10 – 00:42:18:00

you know there are times that I come in on. And say, like Lucero I need a hug and I just get a hug, whether it’s because I was really tired that day, or like some bad comment came up, like something bad came up the other day and we were just talking about it. But it’s great to have good people around you, of course. I mean, there’s no real way like if if it’s in your DNA to

00:42:19:19 – 00:42:32:29

get, like, riled up about those things like like me, then, you know, there’s no like at least for me, I haven’t found the technique or something to master or to deal with it. I feel like some people are just born to just be like really like.

00:42:34:25 – 00:43:18:17

To like not care about those things again, if you’re like me, if you like, get sensitive on these things, then I don’t know, I just try to I just ignore it and have good people around me to talk about it. And then they if I want to do something impulsive, they’ll stop me. But those impulsive things I’ve learned to just kind of like, oh, no, I don’t need to engage with the beginning. Sometimes I’ll engage with make a video about it or something like that. But, you know, I was just, you know, I don’t want to put that on my audience and those those kind of things, you can’t train yourself to be like, oh, well, these are just people just at a worse place in their life than most people wasting their energy on the

00:43:20:18 – 00:43:28:15

views. That’s good engagement. But, yeah, I mean, I don’t know if that’s any good answer, but I can give that to you.

00:43:29:00 – 00:43:30:17

Hey, it’s honest. Yeah.

00:43:32:05 – 00:43:40:16

I did bring up Lucero onto the stage to get in questions for her to answer for you. Help you out there, David. Yeah.

00:43:42:04 – 00:43:43:24

Welcome to the podcast.

00:43:46:12 – 00:43:48:06

Well, thank you so much.

00:43:48:22 – 00:43:49:12

Yes.

00:43:49:23 – 00:43:54:08

All right. Thank you very much. So, David, I want to pivot a little bit

00:43:55:27 – 00:44:07:05

to the discussion and your thoughts of feelings and the steps you’ve taken as a guy in a female based genre of photography

00:44:08:29 – 00:44:25:13

and the fact that you were part of the audience of Sue Bryce men’s intensive workshop. One word. What was it like to be part of the audience learning from Sue on how to approach doing women’s portraiture as a man?

00:44:27:23 – 00:44:52:14

I mean, the live audience was incredible. Like, you know, there’s nothing like learning in person. And of course, Sue’s a huge icon to me, so I’m meeting her in person. That was actually the second time I got to meet her. But still, nonetheless, it’s starstruck as well. Everything feels a lot more powerful, every word she says in the other room and things like that.

00:44:54:12 – 00:45:27:14

It’s an incredible experience being a part of a live audience, but, you know, at that time, as there was a good point, because I was struggling with that same concept of like being a guy serving women. And, you know, there is at that point, there wasn’t a lot of guys. I think that was the huge thing that we were bringing up and which is part of the reason why Sue wanted to cater to us as well.

00:45:28:18 – 00:45:48:24

So it came out a really good time because, yeah, it’s tough. Like if we just take Sue’s blueprints and make no adjustments, then, you know, how can we if it’s really tough to just follow that same blueprint and talk the same way as Sue does. You know, it’s it’s not from our words.

00:45:49:09 – 00:46:10:26

So you had made a post in the Sue Bryce Education Facebook group. You said that the business model works, the posing works, the the belief in yourself works, but the voice didn’t. What changes did you feel you had to make as a male photographer to make the voice fit for you?

00:46:11:20 – 00:46:19:26

Yeah. So, I mean, you know, for the male photographers here and you want to like, you know, like Sue.

00:46:22:00 – 00:46:33:17

So Sue talked about the 40 over 40 campaign, like I should even really, truly know what that is. It’s like the 40 photos for people over 40 or 40, like people

00:46:34:13 – 00:46:37:04

40, 40 people a

00:46:38:14 – 00:46:55:07

right. And I try to do that. You know, I try to make it like we’re 40 women. But I was like, I don’t know how I can speak to these women. I don’t even know how many people, how many people there are over 40 in my inner circle.

00:46:57:11 – 00:47:29:10

And, you know, you don’t even have to be a guy to feel that way. Maybe, you know, you’re one of the younger demographic and Sue’s community, which I know as well, for me, I was like, well, there weren’t a lot of people in the younger 20s at that time, which I struggled with as well. OK, how do I do this as a 24 year old guy coming out of college? But yeah, I mean, you know, that’s why you just can’t take that blueprint, because you might see a campaign like that. You don’t feel attached to it personally.

00:47:30:06 – 00:48:05:17

That’s why for me, tick tock was so important as well, just finding my own voice and doing my own things. And just like that way, you just being a lot more introspective and you’re sharing the joys of what you do. And then you realize, oh, this is this is what my clients really see from me. And you realize when you start creating your own content, you’re not just speaking the words of your mentor, your teacher. You start to really understand what you enjoy and you understand by doing it and experiencing it and sharing.

00:48:06:12 – 00:48:38:02

I think that’s such a great point, because we had I think it was last last week, two weeks ago, we were interviewing was it Kate Styles? We were interviewing someone who, um, who had a bare campaign. And it was so basically she was saying that she was Kevin, help me remember the name, because I don’t think it was Cate Styles. But she was interviewing her. She she knew that the 40 over 40 didn’t resonate because she’s very young, too. She started her business when she was like 18.

00:48:38:04 – 00:49:14:10

It was. And Keeley Miller think it was like, I know it’s not keep files. OK, so Keeley Miller. Yeah, she started her business when she was eighteen and she had to come up with a completely different campaign, one that spoke to her because, like the 40 over 40 didn’t work. And I think that’s like the thing is, if something’s not working for you, it’s not because the thing doesn’t work. It’s because you haven’t found a connection to it. And that’s more like a lot of people get get hung up and they just get so frustrated, just like you said. Like, if you think about tick tock, as just like marketing and then you spend like five hours on a video and then it doesn’t go anywhere, you’re going to be mad.

00:49:14:12 – 00:49:28:12

Well, same thing with if you just try to adopt a campaign that you have no connection to, it’s not going to work for you. Or if you try to say Sue’s little phone script, but you don’t personally resonate with those words, it’s not going to work for you.

00:49:28:24 – 00:49:30:24

Oh, yeah, for sure.

00:49:31:23 – 00:49:41:08

So would you say you’re your target audience is the younger demographic because you relate to them better than see someone a little bit older?

00:49:41:29 – 00:49:47:17

You know, I think I relate to so many people now, like finding my voice.

00:49:49:02 – 00:50:09:02

I don’t know what it is, everything like that, it just expanded, but at the same time, it’s just so simple of like. It’s such a simple mission of passion, of helping people just feel beautiful. And yes, like if you think about it, like, yes, that’s what Sue teaches us, but.

00:50:11:00 – 00:50:41:15

Like creating content around and experiencing it really changes how like what that statement is to you. It’s been for me and I can have that conversation with anyone now without, you know, feeling like I need to pull a script on my notepad or anything. Like it’s truly like my passion and joy. And that again, that goes back to me creating content. That’s why it’s it’s a lot easier for me just speaking about it.

00:50:41:17 – 00:51:12:15

And I’ve I’ve been flown out to Minnesota to teach my first posing /confidence workshop. You know, all these things I never imagined would happen. And my client demographic too is just like everywhere because my tech audience is also everywhere as well. It ranges from like high school teens to all the way up to like moms.

00:51:12:18 – 00:51:21:10

But then something that’s been really surprising is the post college like. Twenty year olds, which I never thought

00:51:23:11 – 00:51:45:13

would be someone I’d be serving because I always thought, oh, there’s no way students coming out of college at the age of twenty to twenty three getting their first job will be able to afford this. But, you know, I was proven wrong and that was just me projecting my own thoughts. And

00:51:46:29 – 00:51:57:17

I truly serve so many people. And because of that one message of, hey, like, you deserve to see yourself as artwork and feel beautiful for yourself.

00:51:58:08 – 00:52:36:08

I think to what’s really amazing is that like people can be on Tik-Tok watching your videos, but not making posts. Right. Because, like, I feel like people always say, oh, my demographic isn’t on ticktock. But it’s like like millions of people are on Tik-Tok. But that doesn’t mean like that. Everyone is like making videos or content on there. But you can bet that people are spending like hours scrolling it. Right, or watching what you do. So I think, like what you’re saying to you is so amazing because it’s like, of course, all these different ages are going to find you because there’s all kinds of different people watching Tik-Tok and you never know who’s going to get connected to your content.

00:52:36:10 – 00:52:43:08

And just because you don’t see content creators that might be in your demographic, which, of course, isn’t true because I’ve seen some amazing

00:52:43:29 – 00:52:44:28

50 plus year old

00:52:46:11 – 00:52:52:22

creators on Tic-Tac, but you can see that. But it’s like I just feel like that’s such a bad excuse. But I hear it all the time from

00:52:52:26 – 00:52:53:11

Oh gosh

00:52:53:15 – 00:52:57:09

like other photographers that their demographic isn’t on Tik-Tok

00:52:57:20 – 00:53:11:09

those Instagram, too, before it became Instagram, you know, and that’s all social media is. Ah, that will come in the future as well. Like, it will be made for a certain group of people. But once it really takes off, like everyone’s going to flood to it.

00:53:11:23 – 00:53:39:14

Yeah, totally. And it seems like you really just embody like by creating these videos, it’s really helped you embody what you do in the message. And that’s what just makes it so powerful and connected because you’re so aligned with your message. And I feel like that is the number one takeaway to me. Sue Bryce education is like not to copy Sue, but to find your alignment and your embodiment with what you’re here to serve and what your purpose is.

00:53:40:24 – 00:53:48:07

I wanted to bring up the projects that you’re working on. You’re currently working on something called the How to Be Photogenic Project.

00:53:49:23 – 00:53:56:25

I love that. Yeah, it’s been kind of like a running joke.

00:53:58:15 – 00:54:31:25

There’s like these it’s like a trend on Tik-Tok or these like fashion Instagram or influencers to make these trendy videos really teach people these cool poses to do for your Instagram photos. But then like they could tell it just cool poses to do for Instagram for but then they instead title it poses to do. If you’re un photogenic or if you’re non photogenic, it always ticks me off. I’m sure we could all have a very long conversation about that.

00:54:32:13 – 00:54:51:28

As photographers, I’ve made many like sort of spoof videos on it, comedy videos, educational videos saying, oh my gosh, you guys, it’s not that you like, it is the problem. It lies just like the very tender connection between the words like photogenic and beauty.

00:54:53:18 – 00:55:25:26

It’s like, yeah, don’t call it not photogenic than normal. People feel like it’s tied to their self-worth and your self beauty. And so I’ve created a lot of content sort of teaching people to deconstruct that and say, hey, like a good analogy I used was like I could I could draw like if someone prompted me to draw a picture of myself, no matter how hard I try it, be a stick figure. But the difference is that I want to look at that stick figure and feel bad about myself.

00:55:25:28 – 00:55:56:14

I would be like, oh my gosh, I look terrible. What why is it that when we take a picture of ourselves, if we’re not photographer, we feel bad? So, you know, a lot of people resonate with that. And I’ve shared that message. People love that. And I was like, wow, I never thought of it that way. And just realize, like, again, I thought all these skills I learn as a photographer were just useful for me. But it can truly help so many people, even the slightest. A little different stuff like learning a little lighting trick or posing trick. How to angle your chin a little bit this way.

00:55:57:08 – 00:56:18:02

Like I’ve gotten so many messages from people all around the world, how much it’s helped them feel beautiful or take one photo of themselves, at least have the courage to do so. So I want to expand on that and build a course for people to very consumer friendly, for anyone to learn to just take beautiful photos of.

00:56:18:10 – 00:56:50:18

Themselves, totally looking forward for that. We are running out of time, but I did want to get this one in here. So this week you made a post where you thank your community for reaching 200000 followers on Instagram. Once again, congratulations on that. In that post, you say that you are working on something even bigger that you will announce next week. I just like to remind you that this podcast is not accessible to anyone until we launch the audio next week on Thursday.

00:56:51:20 – 00:56:59:23

Do you feel like giving our current audience a little sample of what that’s about, maybe the title of the project or you tell us the whole thing?

00:57:00:03 – 00:57:22:01

You know, I’m moving to L.A.. Hey. Yeah. Cool! Oh, yeah. Oh, right. Yeah. It’s a big move for us. This is coming along. And yeah, that’s a big move for my content creator career, connecting with other content creators and just doing bigger things over there.

00:57:23:28 – 00:57:35:03

And I just haven’t figured out the best way to announce it because it is a big move. Ah, we have a lot of potential clients out there that would be really excited once they hear that too. So, yeah, that’s, that’s a big secret.

00:57:36:09 – 00:57:39:27

Very cool. Well, you’re moving closer to Ashleigh and away for me.

00:57:41:15 – 00:57:42:14

Yeah. Yeah, you’re

00:57:42:16 – 00:57:46:26

welcome in Santa Barbara. Anytime day weekend getaway

00:57:47:22 – 00:57:50:28

Yes I need to see more of SoCal so. Yes.

00:57:52:27 – 00:58:06:12

Well, it has been an absolute pleasure having you with us. A lot of very good information. But like I said, we have hit the one hour mark. But before we let you go, I’d like to ask you to go ahead and tell people where they can find you.

00:58:07:06 – 00:58:30:01

I’m having some grape. Find me on. Tik-Tok, David. Suh then I’m on Instagram at David Suh photo right now. I’m currently trying to acquire David from another David SuhU and then. Yeah. David Suh on YouTube to see some longer in def videos of me and. Yeah.

00:58:30:27 – 00:58:38:26

Awesome. Thank you very much. By the way, on Nikki’s episode you said something about Twitch. I went there, followed you and you’re on the same

00:58:41:13 – 00:58:41:28

side.

00:58:42:00 – 00:58:42:24

Look, you think

00:58:43:04 – 00:58:45:23

I was like, oh yeah, I’m going to watch David game. Let’s get it.

00:58:48:01 – 00:58:54:10

Maybe maybe that’s a little little something I add on to when I move to LA. Boom. There you go. Yeah.

00:58:55:26 – 00:59:36:20

Well, thank you. And everyone, please, please, please go follow David and make sure to follow the portrait System on Instagram and Facebook as well. Also, be sure to check out the blog posts that are associated with our clubhouse interviews at SueBryceEducation.com/blog. If you are a member of Sue Bryce Education, you have any more questions for David, Ashley or myself Go tag us in a post in the Sue Bryce members only Facebook group. If you are not a member of Sue Bryce education and you are interested in learning more about how we can help you and your business succeed, email Ella with support at support at SueBryceEducation.com.

00:59:37:02 – 00:59:39:21

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.