Tips to Land the Big Sale with Kristine Logan

November 19, 2021 Artist Spotlight

Clubhouse Conversation: Kristine Logan

In the latest episode of the Portrait System Podcast: Clubhouse Edition, Kevin Conde and Ashleigh Taylor chat with Kristine Logan, a portrait photographer based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, who just landed a $14,000 sale. That sale started with a client who came in just for a headshot, but then returned for a girls-day-out shoot where everyone went home with albums. Congratulations, Kristine!

Be sure to listen to the whole podcast to hear how Kristine landed the sale Ashleigh points out is the kind of sale tale everyone in the SBE community aspires to have. Kevin asks the astute question of what kind of mindset one needs to have in order to turn “just a headshot” into a dream come true. And, if you’ve been paying attention to Sue Bryce’s teaching, you probably already know, it’s about treating every client with kindness & respect and following through with high-quality service & product delivery. But, be sure to tune in for all the details plus Kristine tells you how with one day a month offering personal branding headshots, she hooks so many repeat clients.

Additionally, you won’t want to miss Kristine’s tips for being relentless in pursuit of clientele. As part of that, she spills the tea on creating LinkedIn magic by:

  • curating your connections, so everyone you link to is a potential client,
  • posting only personal branding headshots,
  • and pairing those images with business-related nuggets of wisdom.

She also tells you how much to post to get traction and how to get engagement on your posts. This Clubhouse Edition will give you so many useful tips!

Keep on reading for some of Kristine’s gorgeous portraiture, links to her websites (including LinkedIn, but don’t feel bad if she doesn’t accept your request since she only accepts contacts in Indiana), and answers to some bonus questions.

Here are links to some things mentioned in this conversation: Sue Bryce’s Headshot Workshop and Personal Branding: The Contemporary Headshot System by Nikki Closser.

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 Kristine Logan

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

A: I first came across Sue Bryce on Creative Live in fall of 2013, I believe. Sue was in a line-up of 10 photography speakers in New York, and she shone the brightest of all the stars. She had an amazing segment on marketing, and her images and business savvy changed my world after that first class!  From that moment on, I knew what I wanted to do and WHO was going to teach me everything I needed to know.  😉

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 I had a ton to learn as a new photographer. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know!!  lol. But that is the absolute truth. I had great basic business fundamentals from having a degree in Business Administration and finance, but I really knew very little about actually running a business as a solopreneur. I needed to refine my sales techniques, posing, marketing, and post-processing, and Sue did so much to “refine” my way of thinking, so that I could elevate my brand. I think she helped me really believe in the power of my gifts and talents and that if I believed in me, then I could price my work in a way that would pay me a handsome wage for the work I create. Through the power of persistence, I have learned how to elevate my brand each and every year so that I am now in a place where I can help others do the same. I find our biggest roadblocks are in our mind, and we have the power to succumb to our worst fears or bust through them to our best life. I choose to live my best life, and every day I remain both humble and thankful that I have found the tools to help make that possible.

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

A: As in all things, balance is rarely achieved, and when it is, it is only temporary. The concept of balance is fleeting. For me, it is work-life “blending.” When I am in my busy season (like I am now), I acknowledge it is going to be “off balance” for a while, but it is up to me to adjust my schedule to accommodate for the downtime I need. I can’t over promise things to my clients, even though I want to wow them with my speed and efficiency. But I am still learning how to do this well. I’m confident I will need to work at the “blend” of work and my personal life for as long as I am in business. It is the nature of the beast when you run your own business. Once you accept that you can control most of what you have to deal with, you can get better at scheduling your life around your work and your work around your life.

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

A: I love the fact that owning my own business has given me a great deal of pride and a real sense of accomplishment. I have built something special, and I am doing well. I know my husband and family are really, really proud, and I am satisfied and centered around the studio I have built.  But I am most proud of the work I have created for my clients. This collaborative work satisfies my soul, and I know it brings great joy to the people I serve. I delight in their happiness.

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

A: My philosophy started with the quote by Goethe:  “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” In other words, “just do the work.”  Stop talking about it, stop over-thinking about it, JUST BEGIN IT. The rest will follow.  And that magic part? Yup, it is real.


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Transcript

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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.

00:00:32:10 – 00:00:46:21

She is here with your hosts, Kevin and Ashleigh, and they talk all about her business where she’s currently at and how she just had a $14000 sale. They talk all about how she got that. It’s such a great episode. I can’t wait for you to listen, so let’s get started.

00:00:47:15 – 00:01:16:16

Welcome everyone to the Portrait System Podcast Clubhouse Edition. 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 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 then our episodes are released on Thursdays. You can tune in on your favorite podcast app by searching for the Portrait System.

Ashleigh, how are you doing today?

00:01:17:03 – 00:01:33:10

I’m doing great, Kevin. I’m always excited to be here, and I’m so excited to have our guest today, Kristine Logan. She’s someone I’ve known in this community for a long time and we are good friends, so it’s really fun to have her on. So welcome, Kristine.

00:01:33:22 – 00:01:42:16

Thank you. This is really exciting, Ashleigh. We’re not even in the same state or the same city, and we’re still making it happen.

00:01:42:23 – 00:01:46:17

I know I love it. OK, Kevin, I’m going to toss it to you.

00:01:47:11 – 00:01:49:27

Perfect. Thank you very much. Welcome to the podcast, Kristine.

00:01:50:26 – 00:01:52:18

Thank you. Thank you.

00:01:52:26 – 00:02:11:21

When we found out you were going to be a guest on the podcast being that you and Ashleigh do know each other very well, you two started talking each way about a story of a large sale you had recently. Can you tell us the details about the big sale? And from there we can go into where you currently and your business? And then we can work back a bit?

00:02:12:10 – 00:02:43:02

Oh, absolutely. So, you know, your timing is excellent. The sale was just on Saturday, and it was funny, and I was going to talk a little bit more about this kind of technique, if you will, later on. But I had a headshot client that came to me and she was a very well respected, very highly visible woman in our community. Big, big job, really big job. And so she wanted headshots.

00:02:43:04 – 00:03:27:23

I couldn’t get her into personal branding. She didn’t need that because she’s already a big CFO. But she just needed a new headshot. So she came in as part of what I would call my headshot event, and I had to work through her people. You know how that goes. And it was complicated, and she wasn’t able to make it on the day. And we got postponed because of COVID because she works for a hospital and it was complicated getting her into the studio even to have these headshots taken. And I was kind of a little nervous that we had met through some networking events, and I just thought, if I screw this thing up, you know, I just wasn’t sure I was going to recover from photographing such a high profile person and not doing well.

00:03:28:01 – 00:04:04:04

But we had a terrific time. I gave her a little extra time because the way the schedule worked out, it was the first time I’d ever gotten tipped as a photographer. She tipped me $400 on her 16 hundred dollar headshot. Wow. This was this was just a short session and we had a great time. And then she called me and said, Listen, I had such a great time. And again, this wasn’t even the full set of tacos. I want to come back and bring my girlfriends. And so she paid for herself and four of her friends to come and have a girl stay out with me.

00:04:04:19 – 00:04:21:01

So that happened in early October, and at the close of the sale, I only one of the friends purchased. It was all really on the host. I had a fourteen thousand one hundred dollars sale and she tipped me thirteen hundred dollars, so

00:04:22:22 – 00:04:44:03

I think she was happy. So I’m hoping and, you know, believe it or not, there is no wall art or anything in that that is purely an album, which I’m actually getting ready to raise the price on my album. So she got it up what I’m calling my new sale version, but she bought five of them, so she might actually

00:04:44:05 – 00:04:45:14

buy one for every

00:04:45:16 – 00:05:15:20

yes and bought duplicates for all four of her guests. So that turned it into something rather extraordinary. So I’m in the process now. We’re just finishing the edits with my retoucher and we’re building albums for every. I threw in a lot of little freebies and a lot of little extras, too, like group photos and never charged over any of those. And she even leaned over to me in the process as we were finishing it up because, well, I am one of your better customers, aren’t you? Yeah.

00:05:16:19 – 00:05:34:14

And I wanted to say, Hey, you are my best customer ever, but you know, I’m trying to, you know, not be a total geek here. And I just hope that you are one of my very special clients. So it worked. It worked really, really well. But that big sale came off of a head shot, just a simple head shot session

00:05:34:29 – 00:05:58:11

that is such an inspiring story. Oh my gosh. I mean, I can’t imagine like how you can turn just a simple client with a great experience into someone who comes back and has that not just like repeat business for herself, but wants to share it with her friends like that is something that I think everyone in this community would aspire to have a story like that. Yeah.

00:05:58:16 – 00:06:01:19

Oh, and that was me too. I was aspiring for that same story.

00:06:04:07 – 00:06:15:29

I’m suprise world with those amazing, amazing client experiences, and you just you just keep doing the good work and you put it out there. You’re going to get noticed, you’re going to get seen and those things are going to start happening.

00:06:16:12 – 00:06:47:09

So let me ask you, how does it how do you take that initially when the client tells you and they reiterate the fact I only want the headshot, they only want the headshot on anything else to then mentally to still continue to create this because you didn’t know she was going to then book you into craft $14000 sale, where if she brings her girlfriends right, you know, what is your mindset when she is telling you that you know and still bring the the fantastic service that is required?

00:06:47:21 – 00:07:25:17

Well, I think you were problem solvers, right? I mean, our job is to listen, to find out what they need and to deliver. And when you gain that trust and they know you, they like you, they trust you, then they can take it to another step. So it’s like a dance with any time you have a customer and sometimes you’re going to have a customer that comes in and they’re already and they’re going to do it all. They’re just but that’s like a two percent customer that’s just not going to happen every day. And so what we should be doing and what I try to do, and I still struggle like everybody else, trying to do all the right things is it’s a dance.

00:07:25:19 – 00:07:58:01

And before you get into that slow dancing, you kind of have to get to know each other and you get to trust each other. And I think that’s what happened is I met her where she was at. She just needed a head shot. I didn’t try to sell her something she didn’t need. I saw she was a busy woman. I mean, I had to work through her people for a while, even though we had met through networking and I had already thought the world of her. I knew a little bit about what she did, but I didn’t realize how big of a deal she really is. And I just treated her like everybody else.

00:07:58:05 – 00:08:32:00

I treated her well. I treated her with great kindness and respect and a little bit of art in the sense that, you know, I’m not going to play that game of, I’m a big shot person and she’s a big shot person. I took the humility route and let her know that I was just very impressed with the kind of work she’s doing, and she’s just a kind person. And we just we just built a really great rapport. And after that first experience, it was one of the few times I like. I said, having gotten a tip before and when she sent me the check, she asked if it would be alright.

00:08:32:02 – 00:09:07:21

Rather than take a credit card. She goes, All right, if I just send a check through my bank because she has a service. And so I said, Oh, no problem. I knew her. I trusted her. I knew there wasn’t going to be an issue and that the headshot total for the day she bought like a handful. And again, this was like a thirty five, 40 minute session. You know, this was a fast headshot session, and she sent me a check for $2000. And I’m like, Wait, she oh, the bank got it wrong. And so I got in touch with her right away because I thought, Oh, I need to refund some money here because there was a problem.

00:09:07:23 – 00:09:38:00

And she goes, Oh no, no. Job, well done. And I was like, Oh, wow, OK. So she yeah. So I thought she was really happy and she was looking at her images like everybody else, and I’m telling her, you know, these are going to be retouched because she saw her images straight out of the camera. We shot, I downloaded. She came to my table in my studio. We looked at them. I didn’t get a chance to do anything and I just told her, I said, You know, just trust me, we’re going to take care of all these little things.

00:09:38:02 – 00:09:55:26

And she loved them. In fact, she had her. She works for that. She’s a CFO of a huge hospital and she had a name badge and she showed it to me and she goes, Look, it’s one of yours. So she went and took her old government issue, if you will, hospital. Got it replaced

00:09:57:25 – 00:10:37:04

with one of her images. And I thought, Oh. So everywhere she goes and she has the flasher at just one of my pictures. So those type of clients bring you more clients, and she has since then she bought another gift certificate for another friend to come in. So she paid for the session and she’s coming in on December 4th. And I feel like, you know, it’s just the start of some really great things. So when I guess they call them sneakers and influencers and those are the type of people you want in your corner, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give everybody that same great experience, and they’re still going to be thrilled with it.

00:10:37:06 – 00:10:50:29

They’re maybe not spending $14000 because they don’t have it to spend, but that doesn’t mean they’re not having a great experience, too. So you really can’t differentiate between who you think’s going to spend a lot of money and who’s not. You have to treat them all with that same level of risk.

00:10:51:01 – 00:11:22:00

Yeah, I think that’s a good point that you bring up, too, because also it can be the case where we may not know who the person is going to be like who the influential person is going to be in our business. I’ve certainly had people who actually, you know, I was out of their budget in the sense that it was a stretch and they may be bought my minimum package or even just like three photos. So like way below, you know, a normal average sale for me and then turn around and refer by people and then those people, but great packages.

00:11:22:12 – 00:11:51:18

So it’s not, you know, sometimes you can’t judge one person’s lake status in a community or anything, you know, based on their financial background or what they spend with you. It doesn’t mean they didn’t love what you did. Even if if they don’t buy a ton of images and that they don’t have the capability of sending you great clients and you just truly never know. And if you kind of treated people who didn’t spend a lot less, you would be doing yourself a really big disservice in business, I think.

00:11:51:23 – 00:12:17:13

Absolutely. And I’ve always found that the people who referred me the most typically haven’t spent the most amount of money with me. They spend what they can and they can afford, and they’re thrilled with it and they tell their friends, and those are the ones that generally keep coming back to me. And I had one and another one recently. I know she didn’t have a lot of money. She has never had a lot of money, but you see me three times because of how I make her feel.

00:12:18:07 – 00:12:22:15

Yeah, and that’s the biggest testament I think that we all have as photographers.

00:12:23:05 – 00:12:53:21

Yeah, yeah. And that’s when, you know, it’s special when they are taking hard earned money that they could very well use to improving, you know, their home or buy a better car or spend more money on clothes or whatever it is that they need. And they’re spending it with you because of how you make them feel. And then they have these results that that are so dear to them. And this woman had brought me first, her mother and her daughter and then her family.

00:12:53:24 – 00:13:29:14

So it was a generational shoot, much like what Bethany does a lot of. And then she brought in the boys at the end and we did family pictures and she bought them all. I mean, I gave her a deal that was before Sue taught me more for more, but she ends up getting them all and spent about $3000 back then. That was that was a huge sale for me. And then she brought me her, her son, who was a high school senior. But he was autistic, and she already knew that I had connected with him. He already trusted me, and she said, there’s nobody else I can take him to because, you know, he has challenges that most people don’t understand or are impatient with.

00:13:30:00 – 00:14:01:09

And then she came in for her own personal branding stuff. So those are the clients that when they spend in, you know how dear that money is to them and how much you know that sale? I mean, I could get emotional here thinking about it. It just it just moves me that they think that highly of what I do. But I, I take good care of them. I really I try to give them an an exceptional experience, but I and I also try to give them extra if I can those kind of clients, I try to reward them for their for their loyalty.

00:14:01:28 – 00:14:40:20

Yeah, I think that’s so important. And I think like I can just hear in your voice, like the equal exchange that Suze always talking about, like if we are giving just as much like as we’re receiving financially, then everyone is going to be happy and like, we are passionate about working with these people because we can see that we’re impacting their lives and they’re like, happy to spend several thousand dollars with us, even if that’s an extravagance for them because we are giving them memories, we’re giving them an experience of feeling confident or beautiful or feeling seen and not truly for them is priceless.

00:14:41:12 – 00:14:49:28

I wanted to because now that we kind of have a recap of where you are now, I believe you found Sue at the same time I did, Kristine, is that correct? 2012?

00:14:50:06 – 00:14:54:20

I I was going to say 2013, but OK, but close enough

00:14:56:13 – 00:14:57:24

and on time again.

00:14:58:14 – 00:15:03:18

Yeah, a long time ago and. Galaxy far, far away, we found Sue Bryce, and

00:15:04:15 – 00:15:37:26

it was back in her early iteration of Sue Teaching, and she I don’t know which which class or where you’ve found her in that particular journey, but I just remember she was one of like 10. I think it was called live from New York, and they were all doing their stuff and they were it was all good. But then Sue, Sue had done and just did a little stint on marketing, and she just flipped my world upside down and I thought, I am buying this class just for her.

00:15:39:07 – 00:15:51:24

Well, marketing up the ying yang like I had never heard before, and I thought this woman not only was talented, she knew how to run a business and I’ve been on the sue train ever since.

00:15:52:14 – 00:16:04:23

I love that. So what I was curious about is, can you talk a little bit like we don’t need the whole story of your journey? But what was maybe the first big thing or that you had? Like, when did this business model start working for you?

00:16:05:24 – 00:16:37:29

Well, here’s the interesting thing for me. Sue came in refined what I was doing, so the short version is I had already hooked on to another portrait photographer sales system, and he’s actually a wedding photographer, which of course, I don’t shoot weddings. So I just he was just the first person who talked about sales and pricing. And so I took a class from him. Interestingly enough, he just photographed my daughter’s wedding, so that tells you the respect that I have for him and his work.

00:16:38:11 – 00:17:09:02

And I learned how to price myself sustainably, but I hadn’t quite found my genre, and I hadn’t quite found the right pricing model for the genre. So I was still, I mean, there were no digitals involved in what I was doing, but I could still make a fifteen hundred dollar sale and I started making $1500 sales after making $300 sales. And then once I found Sue and I started flipping over my genre and re, I mean, it’s hard.

00:17:09:04 – 00:17:15:26

I think Sue uses the term you can’t ride to ask, you can’t ride a horse the way

00:17:16:09 – 00:17:20:13

I think it is. You can’t ride one horse with two horses, something that

00:17:22:02 – 00:17:27:18

maybe you can’t ride two horses with one ass. I’m not sure we’re probably getting it wrong,

00:17:28:11 – 00:17:59:00

something like that. And he was like, Hit me where? I mean, she literally told me that, and I was like, Oh, oh, that was the problem. That was the problem. I was treating one genre one way because I didn’t know. And again, when you’re a solopreneur and you’re trying to figure things out, it’s sometimes you figure it out the hard way, right? And I was doing the hard way. And then all of a sudden I thought, I’ve got to let go of everything else I’ve been taught because it no longer serves me.

00:17:59:02 – 00:18:35:22

It wasn’t fitting the genre I was all about. It didn’t have a digital component, which, of course, you know, 10 years ago, digitals were big, but they’re not as big as they are now. And so I needed to embrace a whole new way of doing it. So it took some time because I’m a slow learner and not to let that other stuff all go. And then to jump on board the packages of six, 10 and 20, which I’m kind of tweaking a little bit now. But I started with that Sue Bryce pricing and then I wasn’t going well. I could have a three thousand dollar sale with Sue under her pricing at my old pricing, which I still kept for my high school seniors with fifteen hundred.

00:18:35:28 – 00:19:22:26

And like, I’m giving away the same thing and I’m making twice as much money with Sue. So clearly, which should I get rid of, right? You know, they’re getting the same thing. And so finally, I broke free and then I just continue to refine my process. And, you know, I still study sales even though I know how to sell and I still want to get better at it. So my my average sale probably is now about forty five or forty six hundred. So it’s crazy how it used to be three thirty, then it was about fifteen hundred and then at twenty five, you know, it takes time to kind of master your craft and then master the art of selling and finding ways to then keep that sustainable volume going because that’s what we all do.

00:19:22:28 – 00:19:34:18

But I would say it was really just whatever year that was 2014 15. I started refining that and jumping off that other horse, so I only had one horse.

00:19:34:20 – 00:19:35:05

And

00:19:38:02 – 00:20:11:03

can you kind of quantify the amount of time that is kind of taking you to get that step? Because I noticed that in the community suprisingly you hear a lot of people getting upset like, Oh, I’ve been doing this for two months, four months, six months a year, and it’s I’m still not getting it. People are close to giving up, and I know you say that it’s a continuous process. Says it is. How is that? Time wise for you, for it to leave behind your previous knowledge or gain even more knowledge to then be able to implement that so it works for you?

00:20:12:06 – 00:20:42:12

You know, I think the learning curve on that is going to be different for everybody. And for me, I’m a slow learner. I am not an early adopter. I will study things early on and I’ll certainly have it under consideration. But you kind of have to wait until you hit a pain point to make the change. And I think like hearing that comment about your, you know, the two for one on the ass thing. I wish I wish I could remember that that was my pain point when she was like, What the heck are you doing? This is this is stupid.

00:20:42:14 – 00:21:19:15

And I’m like, Yeah, it is. And so whatever that rock bottom is, whatever that moment of clarity, that’s going to be different for everybody, you know, is it four months? Is it six months? Is it two years? And then I think it’s just a continual process to refine what you do until you, you get it, where you want it, where you’re driving in your lane. And for me, it became I had another like, we have a local business women’s center and a friend of mine ran it as the director and it’s a division of the Small Business Administration.

00:21:19:23 – 00:21:54:03

So they have support staff and and people on board to kind of help with coaching and things like that. So I joined a mastermind group with that particular organization to kind of help build some community to get me out networking a little bit more. And that business director kind of kicked me in the seat of the pants, too. And she goes, You’re not networking the way you’re supposed to. You are not marketing. You think you are, but you are not. And that was another moment then that came about in 2018, and I thought, Oh gosh, that hurt.

00:21:54:17 – 00:22:06:12

And I, you know, if it hurts, it’s probably accurate. So I had to sit and think about what I wasn’t doing, and she actually told me, she goes, You’re making all these really, really pretty things because I have I have. You want to know how many PDFs? I have

00:22:10:09 – 00:22:41:20

to say one. For every genre, you better believe I’ve got a PDF for everything. And she goes, You’re spending all your time creating these things, but you’re not getting customers. You’re not out there. And as we all know you, when you start, you have your circle of influence, right? You have that tier one client people, you know, people who know you, they know you have a camera, it prices in an issue. At that point, it’s just you can solve their problem because they know you. Then you have to blow it up to the Tier two, which are the people who know the people who know you.

00:22:42:00 – 00:23:13:02

And then you have to blow it up to Tier three, which is going to be, you know, the community at large, which may or may not have any direct relationship with you. And so I was missing Tier three. I was relying on Tier one, and you have to be my word for twenty nineteen. And I’ve carried it through 20 and 21 is relentless. You have to be relentless in your pursuit. Because for me, I have tried everything. I have done promotions a little bit. I’m not a big person to.

00:23:13:04 – 00:23:45:09

I don’t like discounting my work. I loathe that I do not run sales, but I’ve done networking and collaborations. I’ve tried social media. I ask for referrals. I’ve done all kinds of stuff. And in the end, I found a couple of things that really worked for me, and I found my three things. And that is just the dog and pony show I’m going to ride. And so you have to kind of try a little bit of everything on the menu before you know what it is you want to sell right and the things that you want to promote. And then I think the work starts to find you when you.

00:23:45:24 – 00:24:17:29

I don’t want to call it niche too much because I still try to keep my opportunities open. But I think in that process, you have you build a following and you build a respect. And for me, all I wanted to do was shoot Sue Bryce style stuff. I wanted to just do these beautiful images and I would say between beautiful gowns and put flowers in your hair. But nobody wanted that. That wasn’t solving anybody’s problem. I wasn’t getting the message out there. And so I had to go back in my marketing and in my networking.

00:24:18:07 – 00:24:52:13

I’m listening to what people want and guess what they want. They want headshots. I’m in a business network. They want headshots. That’s what they can relate to. But after we sell them the headshot, they know me. They like me. They trust me to do good work. And then I could give them a voucher and say, Come back and bring your husband make it a working out. Yeah. And so that’s how I started to build my portrait business in a bigger way was by picking up a genre that was solving problems that people were coming to me.

00:24:52:27 – 00:25:00:26

And now, when I run a headshot day, I’ll make between 3500 and 5000 dollars a day. Wow, wow.

00:25:01:00 – 00:25:06:20

On headshots then and then you upsell them into like a photo shoot after that too.

00:25:06:29 – 00:25:40:09

I I don’t upsell them while they’re there. I will selectively plant seeds, so I will talk to them about, Oh, we had so much fun. Next time, bring if I hear they have a daughter, we should do a mother daughter session. Are they talking about their husband or whatever it is? If you just listen, they will tell you who’s important in their life and then you find ways and then you can invite them back in either through like your your your database. As Sue would say, ring your database, you know, you can call them back. And so once they’ve already spent money with you, they know how it works and they’re going to spend money again.

00:25:40:20 – 00:26:15:20

So that’s really kind of the big game I played is I look for that in business terms, I’ll call it an MVP minimum viable product. I couldn’t entice anybody to come in and spend three grand on portraits, but I can entice them in with a $400 headshot. And that’s how I got him in, because it’s easy to spend four hundred, you go, OK, I get it. It’s for business, it’s for my career. It’s going to help me make money. They could justify that. But who thought they were going to spend $14000 with me after they got headshots? You know, they don’t plan to do that.

00:26:15:22 – 00:26:30:12

It just kind of happens. But you become their photographer, your person of choice, and then you build that relationship and then you just continue to nurture it, nurture that relationship. So it wasn’t blowing up my headshot business. I blew up my portrait business

00:26:31:02 – 00:27:03:18

that reminds me so much of the workshop that’s in Sue Bryce education that is like, I think it’s just called the head workshop and it’s very similar. Sue basically teaches the exact same thing how you can bring people in for this need that people know that they have with a more low ticket. It’s kind of like if you think about it, a sales funnel and then from just surveying and being a great photographer and giving them the best service possible, you can then turn those people into repeat clients.

00:27:03:20 – 00:27:07:04

So I really love that. I think it fits the ethos of this group.

00:27:07:10 – 00:27:20:08

So well, yeah, that is exactly what it was or what it is. Yeah. And and again, the fun thing now I last in October because I thought, maybe I can blow up my portrait business enough where I never have to shoot another headshot

00:27:22:02 – 00:27:55:09

A dream. I thought the dream was. But here’s the funny thing is the thing about headshots and having done a lot of them now and getting pretty good at it, faster and more efficient, and finding a better system to manage the the flow in October, I actually didn’t take any headshots because I didn’t have time. I had so many portraits because know a busy time for seniors and families and all that kind of stuff. I was too busy and then I missed it. And one of the things I missed about the headshots, now I’m not talking personal branding.

00:27:55:11 – 00:28:27:14

That’s a whole nother thing. I was still shooting. Branding the headshots are fast. I send them right after we pick them, you know, we pick them together. We cull together. There’s no time spent on calling. I can’t. They’re changing their clothes. I’m taking out a few test shots and then they’re looking at them warts and all my words and all to them. I got to get rid of that when they’re, you know, but you’re showing them that, but you’re not wasting any time and you’re being very, very efficient and they immediately get sent to my retouch or I don’t even look at them again. I get them back and I send them to my.

00:28:27:16 – 00:29:01:21

I have a studio assistant who helps me with a variety of tasks I give them to her, and then Julia resizes them for print and social media and web files and LinkedIn. I can for versions of the same file, and we’re done. She loads them up to Dropbox, and if you think about that hourly wage that you’re getting, there’s no consult. I always give a consult with a portrait. I don’t have to do that. I don’t have to drive to their home to do a sales session. There’s none of that there right there. It is such an efficient way to make money. I see why people just focus on headshots because it’s really, really easy.

00:29:01:23 – 00:29:34:00

And I see why Nikki does personal branding because, you know, you get into that rhythm and there aren’t a lot of extras that come with it. So you can be very efficient. And I thought, Wow, that actually is kind of a fun little thing, and it balances out all the work you do creatively with your full portrait clients because they take a lot of energy. I mean, I’m exhausted after a portrait shoot, but after a headshot session, I’m not because I haven’t given up all my earthly creative juices to a person because it’s, you know,

00:29:34:13 – 00:29:45:24

can you talk a little bit about the way your head shot day is kind of set up? Is that something you’re doing monthly, bi monthly? How many people are you doing and how much are you charging them for all of this?

00:29:46:23 – 00:30:17:10

Sure. Well, it’s going to vary based on demand, and so I try to be as flexible as possible. So I say I book clients anywhere from three weeks to. Three months out, but I only book my headshot sessions one month at a time, and I will not book ahead. So like, we’re in November now. My next one is next Wednesday. I will not. If someone goes well, I don’t want to come in until December, I’m like, I don’t have one scheduled for December.

00:30:17:20 – 00:30:54:05

I’m not. I’m not going to project that out because I want the immediacy to be the driver, right? Because if they feel like they can call me in March, they’re going to call me in March, right? I want them to come in now. So I’m forcing them to make a quick decision. That’s how I usually get them on board. And so I will take right now it’s between one to two a month and generally one is my happy spot because again, I’d rather be doing portrait. I will. I used to try for six a day and then COVID hit, and I also used to offer hair and makeup and then COVID hit.

00:30:54:15 – 00:31:25:26

And so what I’ve decided to do since COVID and I really am liking the result of this is I had to stop offering hair and makeup during my headshot session days because I was paying a team to come in. And my clients would cancel, Oh, my son just came home from school. He’s infected. We’re all quarantined. I can’t come. Well, I’ve already scheduled hair and makeup in. At the last minute I I pay my people. I don’t want anybody suffering, but then I was suffering because I was paying the bill, right? So I got rid of the hair and makeup for my headshot sessions.

00:31:26:05 – 00:32:04:12

And that elevated and also shows the difference between my normal client session, which is twelve hundred ninety five dollars that comes with hair and makeup. But you want my little mini session, my little small basic session. That’s three ninety five no hair and makeup. So there’s a big distinguishing factor between the service they we’re going to get at the higher end at the custom rate and then as a as a mini. So and I and the funny thing is everybody comes in looking terrific. I have never had somebody not come in without great hair and makeup, so I don’t feel like my work suffers because they haven’t got their act together.

00:32:04:14 – 00:32:36:22

That’s far from it. They’re invested even at a $400 price point. So now what I do because of, but again, I dropped from six to five, so it gave me more time in between people so they wouldn’t pass. They wouldn’t see each other again, keeping the contagion at bay, if you will, by not introducing more people into the studio. So I reduced it to five, and that’s a that’s an OK number for me. So I schedule them every hour and a half, and then they come in and I allow them to bring in three outfits.

00:32:37:20 – 00:33:10:00

We may not get to three outfits, and I tell them it just depends on how quickly they change. Some women primp longer. Some men are faster. Some people just bring into, you know, but I’m going to try to get three looks because the more looks you can feature, hopefully the more images you can sell. And so I give them in that 395 two images, no hair and makeup, but they have the ability to buy more, and almost everybody does. I would say on average, I sell a total of five images during the day.

00:33:10:11 – 00:33:12:09

So it works. It works out really, really well.

00:33:12:25 – 00:33:19:20

What is in the twelve ninety five package, aside from hair and makeup, like how many images are included in that package?

00:33:20:03 – 00:33:55:27

I actually don’t include images because I don’t want to stop the conversation. At OOP, I got my three or four images. My individual image price is $300, but I I don’t really sell one. I’ve kind of done what Nikki did, which is drop that and I just say you can apply it towards a package. And so at twelve ninety five, they’re going to get a thousand dollar credit to put towards a package. If it’s a family that comes to me, I’m going to say it’s twelve ninety five and it goes towards the purchase of wall art.

00:33:56:22 – 00:34:29:14

I don’t even give them an option if the family isn’t interested in wall art. I’m not photographing them because to me, if I might, I think I have the same size you do, Ashleigh, where I do a five by seven picture on an eight in an eight by 10. Graphi studios says Yes, I don’t want a family, especially if it’s an extended family just going with the five by seven picture. That’s ridiculous. I don’t. I don’t want that. That’s too. That’s too small. Nobody can see it. So with families, if they don’t want wall art, I don’t love shooting families.

00:34:29:16 – 00:34:39:04

I’ll be real honest. So if they don’t want wall art, that’s my that’s my ticket to say. There’s probably somebody out there better suited to to photograph you then than me.

00:34:39:19 – 00:35:15:12

I love hearing that because you as a business owner, as a photographer, have decided, what do you want to do? What do you want to sell? One, if you don’t like doing families and you don’t offer it as much. And if you’re going to shoot a family, it has to be wall art. Yeah, or that’s it. You’ve decided, you know, you don’t you’re not chasing every single client because you have people who are afraid that, you know, when they’re not chosen by someone or they’re not getting a call back you, on the other hand, art doesn’t matter.

00:35:15:14 – 00:35:17:22

You’ve decided you figured it out, you know?

00:35:17:24 – 00:35:52:25

Yeah. And I know there everybody has their their jam. I’m really content with as much one to one as I can get. I realize that limits my potential in what I can sell. I mean, I hear of some people who sell to families and they’re putting up huge numbers, you know, 20000, 25000. I actually went to a workshop put on by a framing company because I was looking at, where am I going to get frames, you know, for all these beautiful things and they were talking about $40000 sales in Texas.

00:35:52:27 – 00:36:24:21

I’m like, Well, I don’t know anybody who’s going to spend 40 grand on family pictures with me, especially since that’s not something I enjoy. But there are people who do it really, really well. That’s terrific. I don’t think that’s ever going to be me. And so if somebody really wants me that much, it’s going to be on my terms because I really would rather just take the mom or the mother and the daughter, or maybe the the mom and her husband. I don’t need a big extended family. They just stress me out. I’ve done it, and I just I can’t say that I enjoy it.

00:36:24:23 – 00:36:54:27

So why should I do it? It’s my business. I should be able to create and not have to respond to every single inquiry with making it work. And they’ll tell you right away, like I had one just the other day. She wanted personal branding and family, and I thought, Oh, this will be interesting. And so we talked and I said, Well, if you need a weekend, which most families do and it’s in the fall or it’s in a holiday season, like my neighbor asked me to come over on Christmas Eve.

00:36:55:08 – 00:37:25:15

Well, and I did it because she was my neighbor. But now my new rules are if you if I’m in peak busy season, that family actually has to commit to an even higher level of spend. They’re going to pay me $3500 with a three thousand dollar spent. Why? Because I don’t want to shoot your family on Christmas Eve. I really don’t. And so if you really want me to do it, I need to know you’re going to spend at least three thousand dollars with me or I. I’m going to stay home with my own family.

00:37:26:04 – 00:37:40:28

And then the hope is then they’re going to spend even more than that. So that kind of eliminates my problem for me. They think I’m exclusive, which is great. And I also don’t have to shoot em. And that word gets out that, oh my gosh, she was going to charge me thirty five hundred dollars. I’m like, That’s right.

00:37:42:05 – 00:37:43:14

Yes, yes, that is right.

00:37:43:21 – 00:37:47:02

That’s right. So 12, ninety five is a bargain, isn’t it?

00:37:47:20 – 00:38:18:21

Yeah, that’s a good point. I really appreciate you breaking it down like that because I think sometimes, you know, we forget that we are the ones in charge of our businesses, and we are the ones who ultimately can set the boundaries and set pricing that feels again back to that equal exchange. That feels good for us to, you know, make the sacrifice or do the job that may not be our favorite type to shoot or the one that’s more work or whatever. So I do really appreciate you sharing all of that.

00:38:18:27 – 00:38:20:23

Yeah, yeah, sure.

00:38:21:09 – 00:38:29:16

So in regards to you, brought up exclusivity. How many shoots are you actually doing a month for four clients?

00:38:30:17 – 00:39:02:29

My goal? And it varies a little bit, you know, like I’m going to take a week off or something like that. My goal is around eight. So I look at typically to a week. And if I have funny, uneven numbers because of a holiday or something like that, I like at least one of those to be a head shot marathon, and I kind of play with the numbers based on if I’m getting more inquiries for headshots and I’ve done a few pretty prominent people in our community.

00:39:03:15 – 00:39:50:16

And so I strategically put those images out there and my marketing in the event, like I have like two spots for next week. I just hadn’t had time to promote it. Kind of forgot about it because October I didn’t do it. I put certain images out there and then people noticed and my phone starts ringing. So you can balance that out because I since I only set it one month up, I always leave a hole for it in the next month calendar, even though I’m going to schedule on beyond that for portrait. But eight, I did 8 again last month and this month I think I’m at seven because of Thanksgiving and my I’m going to take some time off, but I honestly would love to scale back to maybe six and just have a little higher average sale to make up the difference.

00:39:50:23 – 00:39:54:02

So I’m trying to figure out how to do that, but that’s kind of my happy spot.

00:39:54:19 – 00:40:20:25

Can I ask you with the head shot days? How do you get the word out about this? Like, did you build like VIP Facebook group or an email list? Or do you just have a lot of sway like you’ve mentioned before in the local community that people follow you? And if you just post something organically on social media, they come? Or are you doing ads like what is the strategy for filling up? Five? You know, all on a specific day, once a month.

00:40:21:12 – 00:40:52:10

Well, for me, what’s worked in and it’s kind of surprising I’m terrible with my email list. Although I had my assistant come in today and specifically work on getting my email is better up to date. But I find that LinkedIn, for me, is a magic tool, and that’s all I did for this month is I put three posts and I was being super duper consistent on LinkedIn, posting three times a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday. First thing in the morning and posting all of my head shaadi kind of stuff.

00:40:52:21 – 00:41:23:15

And occasionally I would post something and say, like maybe post high school senior and say, Hey, parents, because you know, the kids aren’t on LinkedIn, right? But hey, parents. Isn’t it time to check something off your list? Let’s get on top of senior portraits before the rush. You know, that didn’t do anything for my senior market business, but any time I post headshots on LinkedIn, you know that we as Sue photographers. Our stuff is head and shoulders noticed above the rest, for sure.

00:41:23:18 – 00:42:01:06

We do. We we get noticed. And so my pictures are better than anybody else’s out there, and that’s not bragging. That’s just reality. And then people notice it and you take the individual. And all of a sudden I’m taking Jane Doe of ABC Industries or Bill Jones from the Greater Chamber of Commerce that we have and people notice. And then they comment on it and sometimes those people share. And so once I started getting, I had two real major influencers influencers come to me, and I both had worked selectively on kind of like targeting them by just getting to know them.

00:42:01:21 – 00:42:35:29

They knew I was a photographer. And then they started to follow me, and then they decided they needed me. And then when they came in, they are now telling all their friends. So that kind of was a big help. But it was LinkedIn where I got my message across and and I’m very selective on who I let into my LinkedIn group. You can let the world in right. You can. And people in India and Botswana and in Southern California, well, that’s not going to do me any good in Indiana, right? So I’m very careful about making sure I’m building my network in the community that I serve.

00:42:36:12 – 00:43:06:06

And so that my algorithm is pushing it into my community only. I don’t think I’m followed by photographers or anybody else. I’m just followed by the people who I hope to one day take their headshot. I just put it out there, and that seems to do it pretty well. I also have another women’s networking group where occasionally I’ll pop in and say, Hey, ladies, just to let you know I still have a spot open that has worked occasionally. But really, LinkedIn is my magic marketing spot for headshots.

00:43:07:03 – 00:43:18:24

That’s really helpful to know. We’ve had a few people on Clubhouse talk about the magic of LinkedIn, so it’s a good reminder to you, me and everyone out there. We got to get on top of our Burlington if we’re not already.

00:43:19:03 – 00:43:49:23

Yes, it’s being consistent too, that you have to be consistent for it to start paying off. You have in what I did, I don’t know if this is helpful. So besides the images, what I would do is I would take nuggets of wisdom. I mean, people can go, look at my post if you want to see how I do it. Most of the time I was just dropping nuggets of business wisdom, and then I was posting a picture of one of my clients. So it might be something about salesmanship.

00:43:49:25 – 00:44:22:08

It might be something about branding. It might be something about influence, it might be something about organization. And I got all of those little nuggets. They were the notes I took from the books I was reading. So if I was reading a business book on sales, then I would take that nugget. And then I would say in if it was a direct quote. Of course, I’m going to quote Simon Sinek you. I go, OK? Simon said, Start with your why? What’s your why? And so I would take those nuggets that would be reinforcing it to my own sense of marketing.

00:44:22:15 – 00:44:59:22

And then people would have a conversation about it, too. They would comment to go, Oh, great. I never thought of that blah blah blah. So it got them to engage on the post. And I think people just read it and were watching my LinkedIn account because I was also giving them not just pictures. The pictures were secondary. I think the messaging was What am I giving to the community? Besides selling, yes, I do sell and say, Hey, I’ve still got one spot left when that happens. But most of the time I could just say, here’s what I want to share with you. And then I looked like I was not only a good photographer, but I had a good message and I ran a good business.

00:45:00:00 – 00:45:01:22

And I think that made me relatable.

00:45:02:11 – 00:45:35:25

LinkedIn is one of the things that I’m just so fascinated about, because personal branding has been one of the things that has blown up within the past year. A lot of people working from home, a lot of people creating their own businesses due to, you know, many different circumstances. When you’re posting this, are you posting it to like like a timeline like a feed similar to Facebook? Or are you boosting your your posts? Or is this something like you’re creating ads for for people to go ahead and see that probably aren’t part of your friend group?

00:45:35:27 – 00:46:10:03

No, it is. I haven’t paid for anything on LinkedIn. It is just consistent messaging, which hopefully hits my network of individuals who follow me. And so I probably did it for maybe about six weeks straight. So that would be what 18 posts before I felt like I was starting to get seen. And then once you can take somebody who is on LinkedIn that you’ve taken their picture, then they will probably share that post like that post or their internet.

00:46:10:05 – 00:46:41:12

Posting their pictures and tagging me is really what’s also happening. So then people are like, Oh my gosh, you look amazing. These are terrific, and they’re doing that on their LinkedIn profile. So I’ve never had to boost. I’m not creating anything, although I’ve told them I will if I get some really good what I would consider like a brand ambassador, somebody who I think would really talk me up well, I think they’ve got a really terrific business. If I’ve done some personal branding with them, I will actually have.

00:46:41:18 – 00:47:17:05

I have a person who writes for me, my blogs, and so she’ll write a blog post, she’ll interview them, she’ll write in my voice and then I’ll do a blog post. And of course, you can do the cross links and stuff to to get SEO going for both of us. And then they often will then take that blog post and put it on LinkedIn or shared on a Facebook page. Or they’ll, you know, in turn, give me love back. So whenever I can take an opportunity to feature somebody like that, I am going to do that because it’s worth me paying somebody.

00:47:17:14 – 00:47:29:12

You know, she she doesn’t even charge me all that much money for for individual blog posts. It’s just like advertising for both of us. But I get the multiplier effect because they’re going to go share that.

00:47:30:28 – 00:48:09:01

But if you know, one of the things I was going to tell you guys that another tip, you know, somebody sometimes has to kick you in the seat of the pants while the same gal in this mastermind, I was here locally. She came to me and she said, You know, you need to get on a board of directors. And I thought, Like, what? You know, and she goes, You think about it, you need to get on a board because when you get on a good board, you’re part of an elite group of people who are serving in the nonprofit world, who can, who are influencers themselves.

00:48:09:15 – 00:48:49:24

And so I got on. I was nominated by this individual to another director to be on our local professional ballet board of directors. And that was another big pivotal thing for me, because who goes to the ballet people who have money, right? people who are into the arts, people who are have a love of the creative process or enjoy it or support it? Or maybe their kids? Do they have a connection to it? And so I can’t say that that’s been a huge barn burner for me, but that has definitely opened up my marketing to a very specific target market.

00:48:49:26 – 00:48:56:24

Now again, am I really marketing to them? No. I’m getting to know them and their fellow directors and a

00:48:56:26 – 00:48:57:25

lot of them. All right.

00:48:58:01 – 00:49:28:05

It’s a long game. They have money. Then the ballet reaches out to me. Ah, what do you know? I get access to a few ballerinas from time to time. Imagine what I can do with the ballerina. And so you know you’re getting to know them. I just did a big series for one ballerina where I was working with a local florist. We were doing some living tutus and then the ballerinas mom called me and said, Oh my gosh, this is the most amazing thing. I want this is wall art in my house. I want it in canvas and I want to pay you to do this.

00:49:28:14 – 00:49:58:28

And I gave that shoot away. So but that came from the ballet, and I just wanted to create that type of work. I put it out there and there’s a following. So I would encourage people find what is your passion? Maybe it’s pet photography, couture, pet photography. Then you should go work with the Humane Society and and things like that, or find where that passion is. For me, the arts are a passion. The ballet is a passion and a former dancer and an actor. And so there was passion there.

00:49:59:00 – 00:50:12:18

So it’s not like I’m just picking up some side hustle to try to win over clients. I’m active in participating in it because I enjoy it because it brings me a lot of happiness. And guess what? My target market is all over that place.

00:50:13:15 – 00:50:47:01

I think this is like such an important reminder for everyone listening about just being an active member in your community in general. And I think there’s like, here’s an upper level thing that happens the more active you get because like as you’re talking, I’m just thinking back on. A lot of it has died down because of COVID. But pre-COVID, a huge way I built my business was by doing a lot of volunteer work with charitable organizations and getting to meet the other types of people that do that.

00:50:47:03 – 00:51:22:20

And a lot of them are these prominent members, business members of the community. And that is how a lot of my local kind of center of influence clients came to me was through the relationships I built from. I was never on a board of directors, but I, you know, did a lot of volunteer work with different charities in the community and different photo campaigns as well for different charities in the community. So it, you know, it’s just a reminder that, you know, networking is huge being involved in like the Chamber of Commerce.

00:51:22:22 – 00:51:29:22

Huge. Then taking it up a notch, getting involved in charity, huge and then taking it up another notch like you’re doing, which is amazing.

00:51:31:14 – 00:51:46:11

And then like doing board of directors like, that’s really people in local businesses want to do business with people who are serving the community. And it’s so easy to forget that. But again, when it all comes back to service like you get what you put in.

00:51:46:19 – 00:52:17:22

Yeah, and you’re happy doing it. I mean, that’s why I had a friend of mine once told me she was on nine different boards. It’s like, what? Who does that? And when I was interviewed, they interviewed me for this position. I did not just walk in and say, Hey, raise my hand, take me. No, they. Checked me out and they interviewed me and I told them this, I said, I’m involved in two groups, that’s it, yours and another one that promotes women’s education, and I said, I’m very passionate about both, but I’m not going to sign up for anything else.

00:52:17:24 – 00:52:51:19

I’m not going to dilute my time any more. I do not have a lot of time to give, but when I give it to you, you’re going to get my best. And I do it because I believe in their mission. I’m passionate about the ballet. I’m a supporter. I financially give to them. I volunteer when they ask for volunteers like everybody else. And yes, what’s the byproduct of that? I’m just around people who make me who are fit my target client. Are they all great clients? No, I’ve had plenty of millionaires. Two in particular from that organization who told me I was too expensive.

00:52:53:18 – 00:52:55:16

And it’s funny when that happens

00:52:56:27 – 00:53:11:22

and they had plenty of money because they were traveling around the world. One of them, in particular, was wearing thirty forty thousand dollars worth of jewelry, as she’s telling me that and I’m like, and she drives a car that was in the six figures and I’m like, She thinks I’m expensive and I’m like,

00:53:12:15 – 00:53:14:11

Okay, interesting. No, problem

00:53:14:13 – 00:53:50:05

you. It’s what you value. And yet there were people there who maybe don’t have such an extravagant livelihood and they do value what I do. And they’ve been, you know, I’ve had some people from the academy where they’re the younger people are training to be professionals who who have hired me. I’ve had I’ve had a lot of influence. I’ve been able to design some photography for advertisements. They were doing a promotion with a local car dealership. It was a new Land Rover Jaguar dealership that was doing a big kind of like sponsorship with the ballet.

00:53:50:14 – 00:54:26:28

And guess who got asked to take the pictures of the ballerina in front of the Jaguar? Well, there it was me, and it wasn’t like I’m their go to photographer because I’m not. They still hire local commercial photographers to do a lot of their work, but I kind of get to ride in and do the fun stuff that just brings me more creative joy than just doing a poster for them for The Nutcracker or something like that. That’s fine. They there, they can hire the people that are not normally hiring, but I’m happy to be there and be supportive, and they know they can call on me if they need me.

00:54:27:00 – 00:54:56:29

But again, it’s the people I’ve gotten to know. And once they get to know you as friends, then they feel comfortable going to you professionally for other things too. It’s just like anything else. You have to know them. You want to like them and then you trust them with your money. So you’re building relationships, and that’s what that’s really all I did when we were shut down in COVID. That’s all I did was work on building those relationships over Zoom, over phone calls. However, we could pull it off. We did it.

00:54:57:01 – 00:55:12:09

And that’s why 2021 I doubled 2020 again, because those relationships are really now starting to pay off in a big, in a much bigger way than they were before. It’s just being persistent and relentless about your marketing and your networking.

00:55:13:01 – 00:55:41:16

I love that you’ve given up so much great advice to the listeners today, and we so appreciate it. And I know that time is running short. So I just want to ask you one last question, and Kevin and I are trying out some questions to ask every guest. So since we’re running out of time, I’m just going to pick one of them. But what was the last thing you did that you were really scared to do, but ended up turning out? Completely awesome,

00:55:43:03 – 00:55:44:10

scared to do,

00:55:46:00 – 00:55:46:17

you know?

00:55:48:16 – 00:56:19:20

Well, I was very scared to take a picture of a ballerina in front of a Jaguar because I never I didn’t know how to light a car. Oh, that was pretty scary, to be perfectly honest. You know, I’ll say this. I get nervous and I and this is part of being a stage actor, too. For years and years, I was always nervous before I went on stage. But it’s a creative thing. You just it’s a good thing, I think, to have some nerves. I am nervous between before every single shoot. I am nervous that I’m not going to give my best. I’m worried that I’m going to creatively blank out.

00:56:19:22 – 00:56:52:04

I have those kind of fears like everybody else, and you just have to push through it. So I fight that every single time I shoot, and I also fight it every time before I sell. Selling does not come easy for me. It’s something you have to work at. And I have to work at it, and I kind of go in and I just say, it’s not about me. This is not about how much money I might make today. This is about do I serve them well? Show them the products. Let them buy what they love and their money will return to you. And I think Sue teaches that you just you have to give the service first.

00:56:52:10 – 00:57:23:19

But I’m still nervous about that. I still am afraid like, Oh my gosh, what if I do it wrong or they hate it? I’m nervous like everybody else. But I think the point being, if you don’t try to push through the fear, you’re never going to see how great it is. And it always comes. It always comes together. The shoots always work out. They always light their images. But I fear it every time that maybe this is going to be the time that I really blow it. Same in the sales session. So when it’s all over with, I just go, OK, you, you said it was going to be scary and it wasn’t.

00:57:23:21 – 00:57:44:16

You sucked it up. You did just fine. And last night it was a forty seven hundred dollars sale. I’m like, OK. She spent a lot more than she said she was going to. So they must have liked the product. But I’m afraid of that. Like everybody else, you just have to face your fear and realize on the other side of fear is the victory and just believe that that’s all

00:57:44:18 – 00:57:51:15

that’s so true. OK, well, Kevin, I guess it’s that special time

00:57:51:17 – 00:57:54:05

Kristine, It has been an absolute pleasure having you on with us.

00:57:54:21 – 00:58:01:18

Well, thanks for thinking of me. This was fun. I normally don’t get to talk about what I do. Very much so.

00:58:02:10 – 00:58:03:09

It has been a pleasure.

00:58:03:21 – 00:58:04:27

Hopefully, it hasn’t been scattered.

00:58:05:08 – 00:58:14:23

No, no. But before we let you go, before we let you go, I want to be sure that you go ahead and share your socials with us. That way, people know where to find you.

00:58:15:03 – 00:58:37:19

Oh, sure. I’m on Facebook at Kristine with a K. Kristine Logan photography and it’s the same on Instagram. Kristine Logan Photography and also on LinkedIn. But if you’re out of town, I may not accept you or out of state. It’s just Kristine Logan on LinkedIn.

00:58:38:06 – 00:59:11:03

Well, fantastic. Everyone, please, please, please be sure to go for a Kristine and make sure to follow the portrait system on Instagram and on Facebook as well. Also, please go check out the blog posts that are associated with the Clubhouse interviews at SueBryceEducation.com/blog. You can also follow Ashleigh on Instagram at Ashleigh Taylor Portrait and you can find me there as PopLight_ photography. If you are a member of Sue Bryce Education and you have more questions for Kristine, Ashleigh or myself, go tag

00:59:11:05 – 00:59:27:11

In a post in the SBE members only Facebook group. 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, please email Ella with support and support@SueBryceEducation.com. Thank you again for joining us, and we hope to join us next week.

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, Ashleigh 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@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