Shoot to the top

Fabrizia started with family photography, but moved into brand photography. She says brand and pet photography are the two rising genres. She started as a brand photographerwas emerging. She used to work as a fashion and beauty editor.  She started photographing young people and managed to get a headshot of an author (family friend) of hers to be published on the book cover. In her 50s, she made a move to be a photographer. At the time, she was living in a tiny village in the Austrian mountains, so she realised it couldn't be in fashion. So she started brand photography in 2011, but it wasn't called brand photography then. She also did lifestyle shoots with families. After she had run the business for a while, she moved to teaching photography business skills. She had an issue in Austria, as there was an exam to become a registeredphotographer. She got around this by setting up a UK business and operating that in Austria. She found that she could not pass the test as her German was not good enough. Eventually, the law was removed. Fabrizia found that on Facebook groups, there were lots of photographers who were asking lots of business questions. So she eventually ran a course about how to run a photography business. She has been doing these ever since. Fabrizia talks about brand photography being storytelling. Lots of brand photography shoots show women with laptops, coffee and champagne. She thinks it should be much more personalised to the person in the shoot. Marcus asks how you can delve deeper with your clients. She says it's best to reflect where they are, not where they want to be. And she says this work is AI-proof, and you can charge more for it. Fabrizia is running a brand lab again soon. She is speaking at the Wales and West Photography Show, as will Marcus. She is going to open the show talking about AI. She is also talking about branding. The show is from the 19th to the 21st of June.Fabrizia also invites anyone who wants to chat to meet her fora coffee after the talk.You can find Fabrizia onFacebookLinkedinInstaWebsiteTo get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week, gets hints and tips from Sam and Marcus and get the latest photography news ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And to join the ⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook group head here.

In this show, Marcus interviews Sam.Marcus asks Sam to start at the beginning, and Sam splits this in two and starts sharing his photography story. Sam's Dad was a professional photographer who shared his interest in photography with Sam. He had cameras from a young age and an SLR from a young age. Sam says that after university, he was travelling. One thing he did was photograph white water rafting trips in Nepal. He sold images to the rafting clients of their trip. Sam also talks about his kayaking trips to the UK, the Alps, and Nepal. Sam says that from then forward, his photography became just for personal use. When he setup his Web Design Business in 2017 he did some photography for clients as he got started. And then finally Sam started doing wildlife photography while living in Mozambique where he stilllives. So he got a 600ml wildlife lens to help capture the wildlife particularly the birds. Sam then talks more about web design. Sam's had a computer in the house from the age of about ten. Sam's first website was written in notepad by hand for the university canoe club. From there he made websites for various people over the years. For example he joined a local choir and setup the website for them. He set up blogs, for example when he had a Small Holding hesetup a blog for that. In 2017 Sam decided it was time to move on from teaching and decided to setup his own Web Design Business. Marcus then shares how the podcast started.You can reach out to Sam on LinkedIn here.Or find his website here https://website4photographers.co.uk/To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And to join the ⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook group head here.

Ros Jones helps people grow their business while avoidingburnout. Ros started in corporate in London, working in change and systems management. With her last job, she was feeling very discontented, getting bored and felt she couldn't go anywhere. She was thinking of moving into training. But then she got a call to buy into a business coaching franchise, which she did. Ros introduces a formula from the book "7 habits of highly effective people" by Steven Covey Be * Do = Have. She says there are two ways to look at this. Who I am, combined with what I do, gives me what I have. This allows us to take ownership of our lives. It also allows us to make a change. We can look at what we want to have (our goals) and we can then look backwards and see who I need to be and what I need to do to achieve these goals.  She says in some ways it is simple, but we often get in our way.We have constant chatter in our heads. We can control this inner dialogue, and we need to if it becomes negative. We have a set of internal beliefs and values, many of which are set when we are young, often before the age of 7. These can cause negative behaviours that affect the way we behave. We need to work on some of these to ensure that some of these beliefs and values are holding us back. The actions we need to take can also be a challenge. We can feel overwhelmed or fearful and not take action.Ros thinks that to help with not feeling overwhelmed, weshould plan our day to ensure we achieve the things we need to. Marcus says that it can be hard for photographers as last-minute shoots can come in. Ros says this is a choice, and it's important to set boundaries. She says it is also important to set aside time for yourself. For our well-being, this is very important. Marcus says this is also very important as part of being a creative person and allowing time for creativity. Ros says that when she went self-employed, she felt she hadto earn as much as she did when employed, so she just did nothing but sell. But this caused her to feel burnt out. So that personal time is really important. It doesn't matter what it is you do, but it needs to be away from work. Exercise is one of the things you can do, and there is an exercise show you can listen to here.As a solopreneur, your business is at risk if you are ill, so it's important to keep yourself healthy. Ros says this links to the goals that you set to make sure you do those personal things. One of the personal things Ros has done is write a book, which you can find here. The book is about family relationships and covers a period, so it contains some social history, too. The conversation then moves on to burnout. Ros says it's important to avoid well ahead rather than looking for signs of it. Ros says if you find yourself syncical and disoriented, with chronic fatigue, digestive problems, etc. But the key is not to get to this stage. Ros says the thing to avoid is delaying the personal stuff until later. Avoid things like putting off your run as you want to do more work. Marcus thinks that men are generally worse at self-care and self-awareness than women. Ros says we need to get over ourselves and if we have a problem, we need to talk about it. Ros also has a podcast, “Bold Business”. It is conversations with phenomenal female business leaders in Yorkshire. To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And to join the Shoot to the Top Facebook group head here.You can find Ros on ⁠LinkedIn here⁠Or email her at info@rosjones.co.uk

 Kate works at Humber HR and has been doing HR for over 20years.  Kate has lived in several European cities before coming back to Yorkshire. Kate says understanding how people present and communicate at work is useful for photographers. Understanding how this works will help us work better with more clients. Kate's degree is in psychology, and she says the waywe present ourselves to the world depends on a huge number of factors. She says people present themselves in several ways. Extraverts and introverts are examples of this. And it can be difficult when people at the opposite ends of thespectrum meet. Another concept is pace. With pace, some people pick up work and run with it very quickly, while others need a lot of time to get the details and understanding before they feel able to start. This is the basis of disc profiling, and anyone can get a disc profile of themselves.  Disc stands for Drive, Influence, Steadiness (pace), and compliance, and these are sections of the disc “pie”. Sam asks how you can do this when you can't ask your clients and leads to profile themselves. Kate says understanding your profile is an important part of this. So, for example, don't give a longquote to someone who doesn't want much detail and vice versa. Kate says you don't need someone to do a profile to work out what their disc styles are. We can use clues in the way they communicate, dress and behave to determine where they fit into. So knowing your profile and understanding the system helps you with this.The conversation moves on to working with freelancers. There are two types of working together in the UK. Either working together as freelancers or being employed. There are no grey areas in between. There are 7 tests to see if someone is employed or a freelancer. It asks questions like Does someone have to wear a uniform?Or do they use their equipment?The way to ensure this is clear is to put together a freelance agreement. This needs to make it very clear that this person is afreelancer, not an employee. You have to be careful that this doesn't creep over time. The issue is that if someone could be thought of as an employee, they could be entitled to all sorts of things like holiday pay, and they could take you to a tribunal asking for backdated holiday pay. Once you start to employ someone, there are lots of things you need to think about. But it's not as scary as it seems, just set it up correctly at the beginning. There are day one rights that need to be made clear, like how they are paid, etc. Having a handbook is also an idea. The key is that the handbook is written for your business. So, for example, including intellectual property in the handbook makes it clear that the work they create belongs to the business.  Marcus asks how to put together these documents. Kate says Don't ask your mate down the pub, Google or a previous employer. The Chamber of Commerce and FSB have some templates that you can use. There are lots of HR consultantswho can do this for you. You can find Kate on LinkedIn hereOr email her atkate@humberhrpeople.co.uk

This show is about how to be seen as an expert in a particular topic without being seen as a poser and a know-it-all. How do we get that balance? The relevance of building a position of authority is linked to the type of photography you do. How can you build authority?Posting authoritative content on Linkedin. Use your knowledge and experience to help people rather than explain things to them. And in helping them, you are building your authority. Engaging and commenting on other people's content also helps build your authority and give you a good reputation, as you are helping others get their content found too. Blogging This is again helping people, and people will realise you are an expert by reading your blogs. Having your blogs focussed on one area, linked to your area of expertise and focussing your blogs on this areaWebinarsThese are a great way to show people you are an expertPodcasts Being a guest on a podcast can show you to be an expert inyour area. Our guest Toby Lee (listen to our interview with him here) is an expert at this. Another guest, Martin Hobby (listen to our interview with him here), is very good at building his authorityOffline Speaking events: Speak at networking events or biggerevents. This shows you to be an expert. People presume you are an expert as you are on that stage. TestimonialsThese are other people saying what an expert you are. Avoid self-deprecationIn the UK, we often self-deprecate rather than promote ourselves. You can come across as an expert without being pushy or showy. 

Charlotte set up Shot by Char in 2019 and is a brand Photographer. Charlotte studied fine art photography at the University of Manchester. After university, she started working for photographic studios, selling portrait vouchers on the streets. From there, she also managed to secure work as a photographer in the studios. While working in a studio, she also started to build her own business. Eventually, she earned enough money to pay off her debt and started to travel. And while travelling she taught English and worked as a photographer. Gradually, the photography went well enough that she could drop the teaching. Eventually, she moved from shooting tourists to shooting brands. She noticed how there was a big disconnect between the photos the brands andpersonalities who are being photographed. Marcus asks about the market in Thailand, and she says there is less money in Thailand. However, Charlotte says she is still changing her pricing and increasing her prices. Pricing is an area she is still working on. She lives in a relaxed rural area but is getting clients, both local and those passing through. But she also works in the capital, Bangkok, which is very different. She is also building customers in the UK.Charlotte is opening a “creative space”. It has different floors, including a studio, podcasting space, headshot area and a lifestyle studio that you can also rent and stay in as an Airbnb. This is going to be available to photographers as well as businesses. Charlotte Graham has over a decade of professional photography experience working with businesses and individuals across different backgrounds. Her end goal is to take pictures that help open up more opportunities for her clients. She works to capture beautiful photographs that showcase brands' vision and their authentic vibe. Originally from the UK, Charlotte is currently based in Chiang Mai and covers the whole of southeast Asia.You can find Charlotte on LinkedIn hereTo get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the ⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus.

The first Shoot to the Top Webinar is on the 2nd of April and it's all about getting higher value clients for your business. ⁠⁠⁠⁠To find out more and book click here.⁠⁠⁠Dan started as an engineer and then moved over to running a photography business. Dan got a studio early in his career. When he started, there was a group of local businesseswith a shared space where he started with a desk. Then, as others left, he took over more of the space to make it his studio. Sam likes a few things on his website, especially the call to action “apply to work with us”.  Dan said he got the ideafrom the book “Booked Solid” by Paul J DiGrigoli It gives the impression that he is so busy that you have to apply to work with him as he is so busy. Dan has upended his about page, making it entirely about the visitor, not about him. Marcus asks about the video and Dan said he got into this due to demand rather than it being something he wanted to do. Dan outsources any work he gets in. So, he works as a creative director, but the sub-contractor films and edits the videos.he says there are lots of freelancers out there who can work with you. Dan says that estimating the edit time is one of the most challenging parts of a video quote. Marcus asks Dan about his style and he says his style develops as you shoot rather than trying to force a style upon your work. Sam asks Dan about his niching as his work is very niched. Dan says this is largely based on his background and who he knew when he was an engineer. Although initially he was very general, he then focused on a niche. Dan said he found that once he niched, everything became much easier in terms of marketing and getting referrals. Dan said the secret of niching is also that you don't have to stick to your niche with your work, only in your marketing. Sam also discussed the idea that niching allows you to charge more as you are a specialist, not ageneralist.Dan has a group he has put together called fathers of Focus. This is a group for photographers that he runs. Dan wants to help others. He finds that the business side of the business is something he enjoys and has lots of experience with. While many photographers don't feel confident in this area. So the group is to bring photographers together and give them confidence in running their business. The group is aimed at family focused men. To find out more about the group, youcan visit them here.Dan Barker is a former aerospace engineer who now runs a photography and video production business focused on helping manufacturers. After picking up a camera in 2012 to help with his wife's business, he realised how much he enjoyed photography. Making time to teach himself about photography and business while working full-time in aerospace engineering, he gradually began to pick up paying clients. He has a successful business which supports his family and now he helps others do the same through his mastermind community Fathers of Focus.To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can connect with Dan on LinkedIn here

This is the 100th episode of the show with Jeff Brown, Zoe Hiljemark, Gillian Devine and Martin Hobby. All our guests have been on other shows and you can listen to them here:⁠Using LinkedIn to its full potential as a photographer with Jeff Brown⁠ ⁠Jeff Brown, Photography mentor⁠ ⁠Guest Interview with Zoe Hiljemark⁠ ⁠How to not leave “money on the table” with Gillian Devine⁠ ⁠Guest Interview with Gillian Devine⁠ ⁠Guest Interview with Martin Hobby⁠ Here are a few of the people you might want to check out, that our guests recommend:  ⁠Christian Huber ⁠ (Photographer) ⁠Denise Duffield Thomas, author of Get Rich Lucky Bitch⁠ ⁠Jeff Brown's travel book⁠ ⁠Simon Marsden, Phantoms of the Isles,⁠ ⁠I am Malala ⁠written by Malala Yousafzai ⁠Martin Parr ⁠ ⁠Perrin Adams ⁠(podcast host) ⁠Uber Suggest ⁠(SEO tool) ⁠Elspeth Vincent ⁠ (photographer)Ella CRM The show covered a wide range of topics including AI, and how it can help and cause problems for photographers.  The guests also looked at the equipment and the directions for the entrance. Photographers needing to include video as part of branding photography was discussed.Where marketing is going was another area that the guests investigated. Investing into platforms you own such as your website and email list was seen as a growth area as getting reach on social media is getting more challenging. Pricing was also a topic for discussion and the need to not have our price low. The group also discussed when to do a free photoshoot, and what to make sure you get out of it.

The first Shoot to the Top Webinar is on the 2nd of April and it's all about getting higher value clients for your business. ⁠⁠⁠To find out more and book click here.⁠⁠⁠After school, Andrew worked for an advertising agency. In2002, he bought a camera, having hardly taken a photo since he was young. That camera rekindled his interest. But he said that he still had a fear of taking photographs of people. And when he went to a local camera club recently, he found that was what they were afraid of too. He found a course by Annabel Williams and did a one-day course with her.  After that, he found out he had some clients, got a grant, and signed up for Annabel's course for a year. Andrew says his pictures were images which people were a part of, rather than a photo of them. He loved Robert Dawson's work . And Willy Ronis. He likes the way they present people in a big scene.Sam asks about repeat clients as he seems to have lots ofthem. He talks about a client where he keeps going back and doing portraits as the family grows. He went to the house recently and it was full of his pictures. Andrew says the main thing he likes is photographing people, for personal or commercial use. Sam brings up that Andrew has several websites with different brands and asks how he manages this. Andrew says that he is found online regularly. He says this is because he provides relevant content to the relevant audience. He says that his specific websites only have relevant photos. He then also has landing pages for all of the relevant local towns. Andrew is also blogging a lot on all of his websites. Andrew's other routes to market are networking. He says that this is a slow burn, but he gets work because he gets customers who have a connection who know, like and trust Andrew. He also uses artisan makers as a route to market. Hesays customers at artisan makers markets have money to invest in things they like, which could include photography. To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can connect with Andrew on LinkedIn here"In today's business world, a great headshot is essential for personal branding and making the right impression. My team of assistants, makeup artists, and stylists work with me toensure every client looks their best and feels confident in front of the camera." - Andrew Collier

This week, Sam and Marcus discussed keeping fit as a photographer. Many types of photography take a physical toll on the body, such as events where you can be moving quickly and carrying a lot of kit. The job also involves a lot of desk work, which can be bad for the body again, but in a different way.There are three areas covered in the showExercise and keeping fitProtecting yourself while on the jobBest practice working at the deskMarcus and Sam agree that with exercise and keeping fit, the important thing is finding something you enjoy. Sticking at it is also important. Clubs can help with this, as there is a fixed time each week, which enables you to make sure you make it. Things like the gym are harder as you need more self-discipline. It's important to think about cardiovascular work, strength training and flexibility. Which means you might need to do different activities. Marcus says he consistently does yoga in the morning and every night, just 10 minutes, but it has made a difference. He notices it particularly at events. Sam and Marcus discuss the idea of using a sit-stand desk. Sam also discusses that it's good to have an activity that you always do standing up. For example, Zoom calls. The final thing is being aware while shooting of what youare doing. Think carefully about what you are carrying with you. Do you need all of the equipment you are carrying around with you? Also be careful at the event, thinking about how you are carrying things. Look after yourself during the event. Marcus says that for larger events he employs an assistant who carries his bags.  

Craig helps lots of people to enhance their presence on LinkedIn and generate leads and calls on LinkedIn. Craig used to work in recruitment after leaving the forces. His last employed job was working for Indeed.com. He was using LinkedIn to get leads as he hated making calls. He discovered a great way to get leads from LinkedIn. His boss noticed that Craig was getting lots of leads without making any calls and wanted to know why. Craig was asked to train the team. The Craig realised that he could sell this training to others. DuringCOVID, he lost his job as he was recruited into the hospitality sector, which was not needed. Craig is going to talk about the use of direct messaging on LinkedIn. He thinks lots of people avoid this. And lots of people who do use DMs mis-use them. Lots of people send a huge sales message just after connecting. This approach is a highvolume, low conversion rate approach. Craig tries to help people to get the foundations right. It is important to get your profile optimised before you hit the DMs as your profile will affect your connection acceptance rate. Then have a strategy for your connections. Build a report with people you are connecting with. Sending personalised connection messages is a good start. And complimenting them on things you have spotted on their profile or their content. Commenting on their comments on a post is another approach. Also he says be focused on who you connect with. Be laser focussed. Small numbers of high quality connections rather than bulk numbers of connections. He says we then need to be building rapport with connections. But at the same time, find the pain points of individuals so you can guide them to becoming a customer. Craig says asking multiple choice questions can work well. It's easy for them to respond and you can make the answers linked to the services you offer. Marcus reviews the LinkedIn Shows we have had.Gareth Wax – profilesJeff Brown – LinkedIn newsletterMartyn Slowman – slow sales Craig says it's important to be making comments on someone's posts before chatting on DMs. Before connecting, like and comment on content and engage with them. It's aboutbuilding trust. Also liking and commenting on content tends to be reciprocal. By the time you send a DM, you have already interacted several times. He says there are 4 pillars in LinkedIn1.     Profile that's optimised for conversion2.     You have to be creating content regularly3.     Comments4.     DMsHe says there are 4 key pillars to content1.     Personal content – build likeability2.     Sales content – positions your offer3.     Authority content – educational content4.     Opinion content – position yourself as a thoughtleaderYou can find ⁠Craig on LinkedIn hereThe first Shoot to the Top Webinar is on the 2nd of April and it's all about getting higher value clients for your business. ⁠To find out more and book click here.⁠To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠clickhere ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Jamie is passionate about sales strategy, LinkedIn, socialmedia, and sales training to help businesses improve their revenue and processes. Focusing on selling to different personalities! In this show, he talks about setting up an e-learning course, and we could do this as photographers. After being a podcast guest, the host asked Jamie if he wanted to make an e-learning course with him. They used software called Zenler for the course. Jamie provided the content. When building a course, you need to think about who your target market is. And why do they need your course? You also need to think about the cost of the course.  But the real key is what the value and outcomes people are going to get from taking part in this course. For Jamie'es e-learning course, each module contained amodule made into a video with Jamie talking over the presentation. Sam says that making the videos can put people off doing this. Jamie says to start with the end goal and think of recurring income to spur you on to create the resources. Butit does take time. Sam also suggests running some of the course modules as webinars and then recording them. These recordings can be used for the e-learning course.  This way, it's part of your marketing.Pricing is another challenge in working out what to charge.Introductory offers are good at the start, but then it's also getting the affordable price. Jamie's e-learning course also has an add-on option he sells where they can get some personal input at the end.  Sam asks what you need for an e-learning course. Jamie sayssome guides and workbooks would be good. Video, auditory and written resources for learning. It is also vital that your e-learning course is unique and different to whatever else is out there. Jamie says creating the course is not enough. Promoting the course is a key part of the success of the course. The course will not sell itself. It's essential to think about whether the people you already market to are the target market for your course or not. You can find James on Linkedin hereThe first Shoot to the Top Webinar is on the 2nd of April and it's all about getting higher value clients for your business. Tofind out more and book click here. To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every weekto ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠clickhere ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellowphotographers, guests and Sam and Marcus.

To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the⁠⁠⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and MarcusMarcus says street photography is about capturing incidentshappening around you. He also says there is so much to learn from street photography that all photographers should be doing it. He says the need to work at the moment as you see things is perfect training for other types of photography.EquipmentA street photographer needs to be mobile and discrete. So, no huge camera bags. A camera and a lens or two. He says the lens should be 50mm or wide angle, and the photographer then needs to be close and involved with their subjects. Somestreet photographers use flash for street photography.Location Marcus says it needs to be where people gather. Otherwise, it's landscape photography.Martin Parr photographs in gas stations, country fairs and other places. Tony Ray Jonesisanother street photographer. He photographed a lot of beach towns on the East coast of Yorkshire.HowMarcus says you need to be invisible as a street photographer.Marcus says one approach is “shooting from the hip”. So, having the camera by your waist. Marcus also thinks pre-focussing also helps.  Marcus says misdirection is another approach. He says to get your camera out walk towards them, but photograph off to the side. But with a wide-angle lens, they are still in the shot, but it doesn't look like you are photographing them. The third option is simply to ask people's permission to photograph them. They will very often say yes. Sam asks about the issue of photographing people without their permission. Marcussays the law is on your side as a street photographer taking photographs.Marcus's final approach is called “pick a spot” This approach is to find a photographic location and wait there for people to go past. What are you looking for?To start with, take some photographs. It doesn't matter what, just warm up. Then, you are looking for people interacting with each other. People interact with the background or environment.To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the⁠⁠⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

Abi and Giles have a background in film and TV. Abi as a producer. They met while working on Jonathan Creek.  Abi says she does the organising side doing the paperwork, keeping the clients happy and getting the next client while Giles does the creative stuff. Giles started doing stills photography as an assistant in the movie industry. He then moved into being a movie cameraman. Eventually, they both got tired of the long hours in the movie industry and set up their own business. They ran the company alongside their film careers for about five years. They now do video. Having done just stills for a long time they are now doing some video. However, they are sticking to short videos and outsourcing to filmmakers for longer work. Marcus and Giles talk a little about equipment. Marcus says he is quite a technical geek and loves focus-stacking. This also allows him to change the look of an image later on if the client wants it. He uses a Sony mirrorless camera now and thinks they are now good. He has moved from Canon to Nikon to Sony over the years. Sam's asks how they get clients. Abi says word of mouth has been key for a long time. There are a lot of connections and conversations with people. Their clients tend to stay with them for a long time. Their oldest clients have been with them for over fifteen years. Once they get new clients in the studio or on location they tend to keep them. Also, they work a lot with marketing agencies and they have a high staff turnover. This works well with them as staff they have built a relationship with in one agency move to another and then they get introduced as great photographers to the new agency. Abi spent lots of time chatting to clients over lockdown as the clients were feeling low. Her day-to-day job is keeping those connections alive. They are also always suggesting new ideas to current clients. Giles likes to run new ideas with old clients and they really like that and like trying them. Sam asks about their approach to AI. He says it's here and they love it and want to embrace it, but also he is keeping the enemy close. Giles did do some talks on it but stopped due to the hate mail he was getting. Giles says the generative AI is so much better if you give long prompts giving lots of technical terms to do with the lighting and style of shoot. Giles says it's great for generating ideas so you are not staring at a blank page. It helps spark ideas. Marcus mentions Scott Choucino of Tin House Studio who does food photography. Marcus says due to AI he is going to make his photography more organic and doing things like shooting on film. Giles thinks it's great to go back to film. You can listen to our show on film here. But Giles thinks commercially it's essential to stick to digital. As final advice, Giles says to stick to your rates and value your experience. He also recommends working out how much you need to charge hourly as a minimum to survive with the lifestyle you have.

Martyn is a sales trainer; he is a non-pushy sales trainer. Everything he helps with is non-pushy selling. It's all about helping, the opposite of the cheesy 1980s pushy salesman. Marcus asks what social selling means. This is around social media. If your customer is on a platform it makes sense to be on that platform and interact with them there. Martyn says his target market is LinkedIn so he is on there at least once a day. He says social media allows us to share what we do without being “shouty”. Marytn was either making a video a day or a blog a day to keep getting content out there. Sam asks about moving people from social to being more firm leads and how to do that. Martyn says he is waiting for them to direct themselves to him, or refer people to him. Martyn says being in sales and not performing is a very difficult place to be as there is lots of pressure from home and work. Martyn says he found Daniel Disney  was a game changer for him in terms of the way he approached social selling. Martyn recommends this book as a good place to start: The Ultimate Linkedin Sales Guide and the Ultimate Guide to Linkedin Messaging. Marcus asks what makes a good salesman. He says the best salespeople are slightly introverted and great listeners. We have a past show about being a good listener A desire to help and curiosity. Curiosity is really important. Great listening means great questions. If you are having problems in sales, questions can help you. What questions could you have asked to get a better result on a sales call? These could be bold or challenging questions. This still isn't pushing, it's showing you are trying to help. Asking questions can mean you offer a solution to their problem that they hadn't thought of. Martyn says you are trying to be an advisor, not a salesman looking for a close. Sam asks after this gently, gently approach do you need to then apply a little pressure for a decision. Martyn says there are three things around this. 1.     People need to prepare better 2.     They need to ask better questions 3.     You need to agree on mutual actions during your current discussion. So this final part says you have pre-determined what you will both do after the call. So this isn't a hard close but it's about asking if they want help with their problem. He also suggests sending the quote with a title that will get their attention. Maybe linked to something that they are trying to achieve. Also in your call make sure you book the next time you are going to speak, so you never lose track of the conversation. You can find Martyn To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode, ⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠ Join the ⁠⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

Sam explains that a marketing funnel is not complicated. It's simply a way to move someone from being unknown to us to a lead and then a customer. Instead of talking about this in theory, Sam will create a sales funnel. On that basis, Sam and Marcus will create a marketing funnel for a brand shoot. What happens first? Let's say our target market is solicitors. I need to “get them into my funnel”. Sam says his go to place to find solicitors would be LinkedIn. A good start would be connecting with solicitors on LinkedIn. Sam says that you then need to know what you will talk to the solicitors about. So he suggests a free Webinar “How to make the most of your personal brand online.” So you now have a free event that you can talk to the solicitors about. So then search for solicitors in a fixed area using a connection message. Make it clear in the connection message why you are connecting. This is a positive way to connect. Anyone who then connects to you is “in your funnel”. Some people will reply to the connection and you can start a conversation about the event. For those that connect but don't respond you can start a conversation with them. During the conversation, the chat uses open questions and guides them to booking the event. This is “moving them down the funnel”. The further down the funnel you go the fewer people there are, but the more likely they are to become customers. You then run the webinar. Once you have planned and done one it's really easy to repeat it. Marcus said he did something very similar and ran a day teaching solicitors how to take their own brand photographs. He says it works well. It's vital that you allow time in the webinar to talk about “what next”. What are you going to offer them to move them to becoming a customer? Sam suggests something small, like a slot at a headshot day. Something small, but, they have to pay. The other option is to offer another free event. Those who take you up on the headshot are customers, but this isn't really the end of the funnel as this isn't really what you want to sell them. Then at the headshot or when the photos are delivered have a chat about the headshots they have, ask if that is going to be enough or if they could really do with a bigger bank of images. That's when the main sale can happen. Remember that all the people who didn't drop down to the next stage of the funnel are still in the funnel. Some are still getting emails, many are connected on LinkedIn.   Make sure that you have put the effort into getting people on the mailing list that you are using the mailing list and sending out email newsletters.   Sam and Marcus discuss niching, and this funnel is niched. There is a show on niching. To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode, ⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠ Join the ⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

This is Gillian's second show with us. Gillian uses social media a lot as one of her marketing pillars. Today's show is about the extra ways we can make money, the extra money we are leaving on the table while working with our clients. Sam and Gillian discuss the fact that in many cases our clients want the extra services we offer, but simply don't know we offer them. Offering these does not need to be salesy or pushy. It can just be letting our clients know these extra services exist.   Gillian shares some real examples with us. 1.     Having a lower ticket offering Gillian says we all should be offering premium luxury services. But there is always a space for a lower ticket offering. These will often be short photo shoots. Gillian says these are great for those who can't afford your core offering. You don't need to advertise this lower ticket offering. But you can personally offer it to some leads who clearly cannot afford or are not ready to go for your core offering. She says that nine times out of ten someone who turned down the higher ticket option goes for the lower ticket option. And in most cases, they also go on to become a customer of her other services. Gillian says she always makes it feel exclusive getting access to this lower ticket offering. It's important to ensure that you make it very clear what the lower ticket offer includes. And only provide that.   2.     Add-ons and upgrades. When someone has purchased a package with you is there anything else you can add on? Gillian says that when she was a newborn photographer she had a one-year photo shoot as an add-on for a newborn shoot. Wall art, books etc make great add-ons for a range of types of photography. You can ask about add-ons at the moment your new client comes on board or later on after the shoot. Explaining that “most other clients” go for an odd on makes clients much more interested in it. Never be afraid to ask if can I offer anything else. Marcus asks about add-ons for branding. Gillian says she has sold wall art for an office, she has sold a branding book as an upgrade to branding clients. It could also be social media help or something a little different like this. Sam mentions that subscriptions leading to regular brand shoots are another way to upsell. Gillian says most of her subscription clients start on a standard brand shoot and then upgrade to regular brand shoots. 3.     Expansion – Where can you expand your service offering What services can you expand into as well as photography? This could be video clips, audio, gifs made from images, accountability services, or social media marketing. There are all sorts of areas that you could expand into. A lot of these expansion services often provide extra recurring income. Having aspirational packages is also a good idea. 10% of customers will want to go for the top package you offer, so having a high-value aspirational package is a great idea and a small percentage of clients will go for it. Sam says it's important to be quiet once you have made an offer. It's very easy to just talk, but once you have made an offer be quiet and wait for the client to speak. Along these lines, Gillian said it's also important to be super aware of what you are saying to clients. We often say things like “this is too expensive” about one of your services. Gillian is going to the Societies Convention that is on as this show goes live. Gillian is hosting the business school at this event and a talk on brand photography. Gillian has a five-day free mini-course coming up, which you can join. You can get hold of Gillian here. To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode, ⁠click here ⁠ Join the ⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

Sunjay Singh is this weeks guest. He is in the sales and marketing world. He has a video agency which he runs with his co-founder, live media UK and a small marketing company which provdes marketing managers for small businesses called Lambardar marketing.   Marcus asks how it started. Sunjay says Will (co-founder) and him had never had “proper jobs”. Sunjay said when he was 14 or 15 his Dad walked in told him he had to photograph a wedding and then left. Sunjay had never taken a picture before in his life. His Dad had always enjoyed photography, But he ended up working at British Aerospace. But his Dad  always had a side hustle and was doing two jobs. So for a while he did wedding video and photography and Sanjay was the photographer. The weddings were British Asian weddings which were a minimum of 3 day events. He said there were so many people, often 50 to 60 people in a 2 bedroom house in Cardiff. Each wedding day could be 14 hours. He could leave one day at 1am and be back the next day at 5am. He says he got better very quickly as he was talking so many pictures in such a short space of time. They stopped doing British Indian weddings as the hours were so long and pay so low and moved onto British weddings.  But eventually he got fed up doing weddings, he had done too many. He was then getting more corporate work and they dropped weddings. But what that time gave him was a work ethic. Sunjay says if you want to get good at your craft, you have to do the reps. Do it again and again. It's not just about working on one shot it's about doing it again and again. If you are creative and not constantly developing your craft that is a dangerous place to be. Now Sunjay is running a video agency using videographers who work for him. He also uses photographers in his agency. Sam asks how Sunjay decided which photographers to work with. Sanjay says that anyway running a business needs to wear many hats and possibly masks. When you are speaking to Sanjay and talking about logistics, don't be a creative, at that point you need to be a business person. He says if it helps, where a tie when you do your emails. Get into the mindset of being a business person. When you are on the shoot, be creative. But be the reliable business person at other times, especially when discussing logistics. The other thing Sanjay looks for is composure. He needs them to be confident and composed. If the photographer doesn't turn up composed and confident then that is hopeless. The photographers needs to stay calm no matter what the shoot throws at you. Speed is another thing. Both getting the shot and getting the photographs back. Clients expect the photos back very quickly. They know it is digital and so expect the photographs very quickly. Yous presentation is also important. Sanjay has seen too many scruffy photographers. By being scruffy you are showing don't care about aesthetics. You are signalling that you don't care about aesthetics which gives the wrong message.   Sam asks how a photographer can go about getting agency work. Sanjay says there is no clear answer, but the key thing is relationship building and being in the right place in the right time. For example Sanjay meets lots of photographers, but he doesn't have a shoot that week and the photographers never get in touch again. They need to stay in touch. Sanjay then says make a list of ten people you want to work with. Get in touch every month and then every other month arrange an in person meeting. Don't chat work, or ask for work, just build a relationship and some of them will give you work.   Sanjay mentions a book The Creative Act, Rick Rubin. He says this is an amazing book. You can connect with Sunjay on LinekdIn To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode, click here Join the Shoot to the Top Facebook group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

Anthony is going to be talking about photography apprentices. He has been a photographer for many years but was recently approached to create a photography apprenticeship. He says he has a learner who, four months in, is taking amazing photographs. Anthony explains what the apprenticeship looks like from the point of view of a photographer and apprentice. For the photographer, you have a full-time member of staff. The staff have training once per month online. They also get skills coach learning and that involves the photographer and the apprentice. From the apprenticeship point of view, you are with “ real photographers” and learning from them. Sam asks if you are a photographer why do you want an apprentice. Anthony says it is pointless if you don't have work for them and can't afford them. Perfect for those with studios or perhaps wedding photographers who need multiple people taking shots at each wedding. The apprentice needs to be paid at least the apprentice minimum wage, which is around £7.40 an hour. Even if you take new staff on they always need training, even if they have a degree. An apprenticeship is an 18-month course and so usually the apprentice is trying to prove themselves over those 18 months so will always be working hard. At the end of 18 months, a photographer has a choice between moving the apprentice to being an employee or letting them go and moving on. Marcus asks what the difference is between an assistant and an apprentice. Anthony says it is basically the same, but there is a training framework and an end exam with the apprenticeship. Anthony says apprenticeships now are much better than they used to be for both the learner and photographer. Anthony works for the JGA group in his apprentice work. If you want to move forward with an apprentice contact the JGA group here. He says you can ask JGA to find an apprentice for you. But it often works better to find one yourself. His advice is to find a person who is passionate rather than qualified for this. The 18 months is a commitment. There are ways out if there is a major difficulty but the business really needs to commit for the full 8 months. Marcus asks how the apprenticeship works with portfolio building and if is there much cultural studies. Anthony says they have teamed up with the BIPP to help the apprentices build a portfolio. As part of the course, they must build a 20-photo portfolio. The portfolio also goes to the BIPP so that they can get an award there too. Anthony says the cultural studies are not structured as they would be in university, but they end up being discussed as part of the learning days. Sam asks what you should do if you want to become a photographer apprentice. He said to go to the government apprentice website you can find the documents available. You can also find employers that are looking for apprentices on indeed.com. It is key for a new apprentice to find an employer to work with on the apprenticeship. He says one of the simplest things you can do is pick up the phone and call a photographer. Marcus asks what photographers get paid once they have done an apprenticeship. Anthony says it varies. The apprentice minimum wage is £7.50 an hour. That is the minimum. Some are salaried at a higher rate. After 12 months an apprentice then needs to move up to the national minimum wage. Most photographers will then be paid £18 to £20k as a starting salary. Sam asks if the apprentices are taught how to run a business as that is so important for so many photographers.

This is the Christmas show. Sam is going to share three things you need to do in the new year while Marcus is going to make some predictions for the next year. Sam says the first thing to do is look at your marketing numbers for the year. Find out where your customers come from. Then look at the time (and this part will be an estimate) spent on different marketing activities. Then compare them. How much income has each marketing activity generated compared to the time you spent on it? Then evaluate. What marketing are you doing that is working and what do you need to stop doing? It will probably be following the 80/20 rule where 20% of your marketing activity generates 80% of your income. You just need to work out which 20% of your marketing activity that 20% is. Marcus suggests you could also do this with your camera equipment and work out what you use all of the time and might need a spare of and what you hardly ever use and so could possibly sell. The number two thing to focus on for Sam is to build your mailing list. This is vital. Lots of people you speak to might be interested in your work, but not now. This is a great way to stay in touch with those leads. We have lots of shows talking about how to build your email list and what to do with your email list including these: Email marketing part one Email marketing part two The third thing to focus on is LinkedIn. Both Jeff Brown and Gareth Wax have been on the show talking about LinkedIn recently. So Sam says to look at your LinkedIn profile over the new year. Listen to Jeff and Gareth's shows and then review your profile. Review every part of it. Marcus is going with three predictions. He thinks that there will be an increase in the popularity of film (35mm) cameras. He thinks this will just be for personal use. Pentax is making a new film camera and new film manufacturers are appearing on the market. You can see our show about the film here . Marcus sees photography AI not catching on next year. He is referring to image creation. Marcus thinks that this will become unpopular. Sam counters this explaining that it will improve and so could grow. Marcus's third prediction is that there are going to be fewer weddings next year. Marcus says there is a COVID knock-on in that people didn't get together during COVID-19 and so there are now, a few years later, fewer weddings. Marcus thinks the photography market is going to get more challenging next year. He thinks that some photographers who started during COVID may quit leaving fewer photographers overall. Sam looks at the UK population data and says there are fewer people in the mid-20s age range which could affect weddings, and fewer babies being born, affecting newborn photography. But we can also use the data to see where the population bulges are and think what kind of photography they might need. There are peaks at 10, 11 12-year-olds another peak at 30 to 40-year-olds, but a dip in the mid-40s, and a bulge again at late 50s and early 60s. It would be good to also look at the local population near you. Marcus thinks there could be growth in some different areas, perhaps funeral photography. He also suggests divorce photography, but Sam isn't sure about that one. Meet other listeners, guests Sam and Marcus at the Shoot to the Top Facebook page.   Make sure you don't miss a podcast by subscribing to the newsletter. The podcast then comes to your inbox every week along with hints and tips from Sam and Marcus and the chance to become a guest on the show.  Subscribe here

Mark Kensett is a photographer and has worked in it for 40 years since he was 17. Mark started in a commercial studio when he was 17—then co-founded a studio for a while. He finally sold his share in that and then moved on to work for himself. Mark says his early work was all done on large-format film cameras.  Sam asks if he can tell us about some of the clients he has worked with or shoots he has done over the years. Mark started as a food photographer and told us about a shoot he did with a food client who worked with the top chefs of the day. He did a commercial shoot during the day and presented a slide show by the end of the day, which was a lot of stress and work getting everything processed in time. He says it was interesting moving from large format cameras to high-quality digital. And they very quickly moved to digital as they saw how good it was. The studio he worked from was an early adopter of digital. Sam asks what he is working on now. Mark says he still works with food and some education customers. He also works with human rights charities. He should be going to Peru next month. Sam asks what he does about charity photography work. Mark says he has a sliding scale and tends to look at what something is worth beyond the financial. So is it good for his portfolio, does he believe in the cause etc? So he looks at these factors and where he will charge them on his sliding scale that goes from free to full corporate rate. Marcus says Mark does a wide range of photography and has wondered if he has ever thought about moving into a niche. Mark says that his training in the studio was very broad. He doesn't do portraits and weddings but still does a wide range of work. He also thinks that within London you could niche very tightly, but less so in the regions. Mark talks about charging for clients. He says deciding a “day rate” is quite an art. It partly depends on what the market will take, his investment in the kit and other factors. Sam asks about personal projects. He says he did a lot of dance photography. It started because his daughter was at a dance school. He did some photography for free for the dance school. He then worked with a designer on a book showing dance photography. This opened doors to commercial clients. Sam says that this is a similar story to Joe Giacomet whose personal project with football cards led to lots of work. Marcus asks about photographers who inspire him. Mark says Yousef Karsh  has been there from day one. He was also inspired by his Uncle who was also a Karsh fan. Sebastian Selgado is another photographer he admires both in terms of his photography and what he does. Joey Lawrence is a young portrait photographer in New York.   Sam asks what words of advice he has for new photographers. Mark is helping to mentor some young photographers. Mark says those leaving education are creative but don't often have the business and marketing skills. He says you have to do personal work. He thinks this is where you learn fastest. Getting out there and learning from your mistakes is so important. Marcus says there is a film out about the photographer Lee Miller. Marcus asks if it's still “cool” to be a photographer. He thinks maybe fashion photographers like Marcus are cool but not him. Marcus asks what is happening next. Mark says he he off to Peru with Edukids. Mark says he is aware he is entering the third stage of his career. He tries to stay fit but realises it is a young man's game and he is conscious that he is getting older. So he is starting to develop a mentoring program for young photographers and helping them become visual storytellers.

Andy has worked with cameras for many years. Initially, he was in the CCTV industry. This role was about sales and account management. He worked long hours, and got well paid, but eventually got disillusioned with it and decided to be a commercial photography. He started out within a Google Maps niche. At the time google was recruiting photographers to do 360 virtual tours of the inside of businesses. This was very popular for several years. He also sold standard images to businesses while doing the virtual tour. He also used to upload images to stock photography. He doesn't do this much any more, but still makes money from the images he has on there. He says the most mundane images are the ones that sell the best. Marcus mentions that we were chatting to Pete Coco about Spotify and how it's effected the music industry, and we thought it was similar to how stock providers have effectaffecteded the photography industry. Andy now mainly does self-hosted virtual tours, so he hosts them not Google. That means they can be much more sophisticated. Andy says this week is quite specialist and the shoot is quite rapid and quite technical. But then most of the work is done in editing. Andy has been doing this for ten years now. Long enough that he keeps being asked back to existing clients to re-shoot. He does a lot of work with independent and boarding schools. Marcus asks how he markets himself. Before the pandemic, he did a lot of marketing, trade shows, emails, social etc. However, since then he has not needed to do much marketing. The amount of work he got shot up over the pandemic as schools needed to replace their school tours with something virtual. So during the pandemic, he had more work than he could manage. And due to that he has built up a relationship with many businesses that keep wanting him back. But he still does some marketing and outreach to ensure that he keeps getting some new business coming in. Marcus asks how he stays creative. Andy says that doing the shoot for the virtual tour isn't creative. But the creative work is in the post-production. He also says he prefers conventional stills photography as it is more creative. Marcus asks Andy about AI and how he has been using it. Andy says AI is here and we may as well embrace it, it's here to stay. He has played with the image creation side of AI. He has also been using things in photoshop like the generative AI fill. As an example, he sometimes has to remove items from a room for the tour and 9/10 AI does this well. But at the moment he says he thinks that the AI generative images is not something he can bring into his business. Sam asks if his corporate life helped him when he had to run his own business. He says it really helped with the sales and marketing side of things as he was doing this in his corporate role. He says many photographers find this hard so it has helped him. He says one approach is to show them what their competitors have and they do not have. Andy plans to carry on with the virtual tours for schools. He would prefer to do more stills and drone photography. But even his current clients do not know he offers this.

Marcus has been working in the studio since her started as a photographer. His hair and fashion work was both in home studios and in larger professional studios. But what he learnt from this experience is that a large studio isn't really needed. Sam asks if it is worth a photographer hiring a studio to experience what it's like to use a big studio. Marcus says it's hard as they are so expensive. But he says you can do a lot at home. Marcus's home studio is 4m x 5m and is a spare room. He has shot up to 5 people in the room at the same time. He is going to break the show into three sections: 1. Backgrounds 2. Lighting  - See our other show on lighting here 3. Lenses – See our other show on lenses here Backgrounds: Paper backgrounds have been traditionally used by photographers. They are great if you have lots of space. Over time they get creased and damaged. In a big studio there is no problem as the subject can be a long way from the paper so the imperfections in the paper can't be seen. But, this doesn't work in a small studio. So instead Marcus has painted one wall a mid grey as an alternative backdrop.As it's a flat surface with matt paint he can get the subject really close to it. It is also easy to change the background to other colours using photoshop. Marcus also paints a 6ft by 3ft board and paints it the brand colour of his client. He simply hooks it up against a wall. Marcus has a second wall that is great so he can use the corner in his shots. Lighting: Marcus recommends investing in a C-Stand. This is a heavy duty lighting stand with a boom arm attached. That means you can be much more flexible with where the light is placed. These stands fold away when not in place. In terms of lighting Marcus says it's quite flexible. It depends what you are shooting, people, food, products or other things. But a single light is enough for a lot of situations. You do need to think about the light bouncing off other walls. So ideally the other walls should be black (Marcus puts up black boards for this to avoid the room in his house having black walls). Marcus says high ceilings are good (if you have a choice) as you can then put lighting above them. He deals with this by putting the subject on a chair. Sam suggests the use of a local village hall as a large in-expensive studio space. Marcus says it's a good idea, but the number of windows could be an issue. Lenses In a small space 100mm will be the largest lens that can be used. Marcus uses a 35mm lens a lot. He says if he is careful and aware of potential distortion it can work well. How far you are from the subject makes a big difference. Marcus likes to be close to his subjects when photographing them. Marcus has a white sit/stand desk with a white top which he says is great as a prop for subjects to lean against. Then it doubles up as a desk the rest of the time. You can catch up Sam, Marcus, guests and other photographers on our Facebook Group. You can sign up to the Shoot to the Top newsletter here to ensure the podcast arrives in your inbox every week.  

Sam and Gillian Devine are running a workshop for Photographers to get more leads and customers from the website and email marketing. Join the event here Jeff Brown is known for many things but especially encouraging photographers to use LinkedIn. Jeff Has a new version of his LinkedIn book “The Photographers missing link”. The first version of the book was written in January 2022, and the size of the book has doubled since then. Jeff says that many of his opportunities come from LinkedIn as well as customers. Jeff says 41% of millionaires are on LinkedIn. The 26-34 age group is the biggest group on LinkedIn, so they a perfect age range for wedding and newborn photographers. 82% of B2B buyers prefer to buy from LinkedIn rather than doing a Google search. The average earnings are $82,000 a year. This is not Facebook marketplace with people wanting everything cut price. Only about 5% of people on LinkedIn post. Jeff says that LinkedIn is a comments based platform while Instagram is a vanity platform. He says constantly selling on Linkedin doesn't work. He suggested mixing personal stories with business posts really helps with your engagement and helps your posts to be seen by more people. Jeff also says it's comments that are important on LinkedIn, not likes. That is where relationships are built. Marcus like LinkedIn for posting images as there are no restrictions on what you display. Jeff says remember the image stops the scroll. A square image takes up more space than a portrait image so that works better. Above the image there is a snippet of the post that users see. Make sure that this is engaging and encourages people to stop and read your post. Jeff then starts to talk about LinkedIn newsletters. This is a great way to get content out to followers and helping you to stand out as a specialist in your field. He says he is also using his newsletters to help him create a book, so the content is dual use. The newsletter should not be about what you have done this week. It needs to have a specific focus. Sam asks how often to send newsletters; Jeff says that 2 weeks to a month is ideal. He said also that LinkedIn automatically recommends your newsletter to other LinkedIn users. Marcus asks Jeff about using LinkedIn's AI to create or improve posts. Jeff tried this and was not impressed at all. It takes away the personal edge, it uses language you wouldn't usually use. He also says AI comments are easy to spot and nothing to do with the original post. Jeff says know your target audience and get into their networks. Photographers often start out working for free to build their portfolio. Jeff says avoid working for free for those with no network and are starting out. Instead approach people with a large following who could easily afford the work. Then make an agreement about what they will do for the work (such as 5* reviews and social posts). Also make it very clear how much the work would normally be and make them do some work to get the free photos.   As a quick win Jeff says niche your LinkedIn profile and connect with your target audience. And of course, read Jeff's new book. You can find Jeff on LinkedIn here. Join in the chat on the Shoot to the Top Facebook group here. And browse all our previous episodes and sign up to the newsletter here.

Sam is running a “Capture Clients Workshop” with Gillian Devine. Gillian and Sam will be focussing on email marketing and website design and how you can use these to get more clients and grow your business. There will be lots of practical advice that you will be able to take away at the end of the day. To book on click here.   David Harrison was a Commercial Photographer and is now moving towards making his passion, wildlife photography, part of his business.  David had an Uncle in South Africa when he was young. When he was 21 he got to visit South Africa and go to the Kruger park. On his first day he saw a lion by the side of the road. David has been back to Africa many times since then. David commercially has been working with a range of businesses doing all sorts of different work. But he now wants a change and he is still working out exactly how the wildlife photography will become part of his business. He is thinking about setting up retreats on safari in Africa. David says on safari you are always living in the moment, even if you can't see any animals at that time. He says it is very relaxing and helps people live in the moment. Marcus says that you can capture wildlife photography here in the UK. David agrees and says that you can create a wildlife haven in your garden by simply setting up a bird feeder. You can extend that more by having a log nearby so the birds use the log as a perch near the feeders, which can make for great shots. It is also easy just to get out on any day and see what wildlife you found. It could simply be some trees and other plants.   Sam suggests spending time photographing birds on the feeder will help photographers develop their skills at photographing animals. David fully agrees with this and says we should fully practice all the photography we do. He says he isn't surprised that those that win Wildlife photographer of the year spend a very long time with the wildlife. Marcus points out that one winner of this was an image of a fox taken in the UK. David explains that also with wildlife you need to work with what turns up, rather than what you planned. Wildlife doesn't always do as you planned. Standing still and waiting is also good. Waiting and observing and then the great shots will often appear.   Marcus asks what it's like to be on safari with David. He says it's almost impossible to explain what it's like to be on a safari vehicle in Africa first thing in the morning. The sunsets and sunrises are always amazing. There is then the experience of being out in the middle of no-where. There is also the not knowing what could be around the next corner. Then suddenly you see your first animal. Seeing the big cats it is so exciting in the wild. Sam says it's also about the animals being so big and potentially so dangerous to you. Sam points out that there are many budgets for safari and it doesn't have to be really expensive. David says that's true and the price often adds extra “bells and whistles”. He says the wildlife doesn't go to the luxury lodge's vehicle first! To get the Shoot to the Top podcast delivered to your Mailing list in your inbox please click here You can chat to Sam Marcus and other listeners and guests at the Shoot to the Top Facebook group    

There is an event for photographers about using website and email strategies for business success. This is run by Sam and Gillian Devine on the 27th November 2024. You can get more details and book a free place by clicking here. Sam and Marcus say that some photographers websites have no writing at all, which is terrible for SEO and getting business. Some things to think about before writing your website are: Make sure you know your target audience – See this show for details. What your call to actions are –see this show for details. Plan your site – see this show for details. Once you have all of those things done you can start the writing. While you are writing think constantly about your ideal client. What are their problems, why are they coming to you? If your writing is too generic it doesn't engage anyone. Be concise. We all know our businesses too well and can give far too much detail. Avoid this. Be clear and concise. Too many options causes confusion. When writing a page be very concise at the top of a page. So the first 5 sentences at the top of the page should cover everything needed for the page. But then further down the page go back to the different topics and dig into more detail. Then even further down the page circle back and give even more details about the same topics. You need to think about keywords. You can listen to the SEO shows here about keywords. It's important to use the keyword / phrase enough on a page, but without going mad and including it in every sentence. Focus on feelings, outcomes and results. Don't focus on the nuts and bolts of what is included in a package. Focus on what you will gain from working with you in a big picture way. How will they feel working with you? People buy with feelings and then justify their purchase with logic.Testimonials can help with this. Ask clients to mention feelings in testimonials. Remember that no one will browse your website for no reason. They are coming to your website because they have a problem and they are wondering if you can solve it for them. Sam does not recommend a testimonial pages. He recommends spreading testimonials across all of your pages, not all of them in one page. Know what you readers care about. About pages. Sam says please don't tell the story of how you got a camera when you were 12 and fell in love with photography. Every photographers site says this. Remember that people care about themselves, and the problem they are trying to solve. So an about page works best if it's about how you have helped people in the past with your photography. Some small snippets about your life is great, but that's not the aim of the about page. Structuring your pages using bullet points, numbers lists, sub-headings really helps make it easy to follow. Marcus asks about the use of AI. Sam says AI is great for helping but not creating. So give it your writing and ask for ideas. But don't use AI to create content. Repetition. People do not read your website like a book. They jump from place to place and so you need to repeat lots to ensure all visitors get your key messages.

Christian does many things. He runs a performance coaching program, does digital media and has a program in Mozambique. Christian was a refugee at the age of 4 and moved from Chile to Germany to Russia to Africa and back to Russia. He has seen a lot of civil unrest on the way including a military coup in Chile, a civil war in Mozambique the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1993 he started a music career in Russia and he became a pop star in Russia for about ten years. Christian says he moved from a communist household to being very anti-communist and having one of his hits Our generationbeing used as the anthem for Boris Yeltsin's campaign as he came to power.   Sam asks Christian's approach to balancing creativity and business. Christian says everyone is creativity which he says is the ability tovcreate something out of nothing. And he thinks this is important for everyone whether in a create industry or not. He thinks tapping into your deepest creative self is what leads to commercial success. Marcus mentions we do have a show on creativity that you can listen to here. Christian says he has developed a morning routine that really helps developbcreativity. He says it's easy to get distracted by emails and to do lists and then you are in reactive not creative mode. He says you can delay those tasks and create a pattern in your day so you get the creative work done first. Christian uses the first half of the day to create and the second half to communicate. First thing in the morning he contemplates, journals and gets himself into a state of creativity through design of his day. This time is then a good time to do the photo editing and other creative tasks. He says everyone can manage about 3 hours of creative work a day. So if we setup our days and for three days set aside time for this focused creative work, it will change your life. Marcus says this goes against the swallow the frog school of doing things where you should do the tasks you don't want to in the morning. Christian says you are rested in the morning (as long as you went to bed at a sensible time) then that morning time is the best time for this creativity. And during this time you should not have distractions like emails. Christian says this creative time should be an empty space as in that empty space ideas arrive. Sam then  asks Christian about Mozambique as it is where Sam lives and where Christian used to live. Christian moved to Mozambique aged 7 just a year after independence. It is a new culture and language for Christian. He went to a local school in Portuguese for the first year, before going to an English language international school. The civil war started not long after he had been there. But he said as a kid most of that went over his head. He would just roam the city unsupervised. He also got to travel all over Mozambique. He also picked up the rhythms and music of Mozambique and that influenced his later music. He also has an after school club that he runs in Maputo that supports children in Maputo. Marcus asks what he is doing now. He is a motivational speaker and has a digital media company. So be spends most of his time doing creative work and content. He hasn't done music for about 4 years. He would like to re-introduce it in the future. Christian's parting advice is aim high in whatever you do. It will be very hard to get there and will take time. But so many people are in the middle it's crowded. It pays off to aim high. You can get Christian's contact details and newsletters here. He says the other thing you can do is work out your starting point. You can use Christian's quiz to do this. He says it's a great tool to self assess where are you now and where do you want to go.

Andrew is a Sydney, Australia based photographer. He started an interview based podcast 12 years ago and now podcasting is what he spends most of his time doing, his wife runs the photography guests. In that time he has spoken to over 600 guests. He finds that the listeners get the most from listening to the average photographer working hard in their business. But he has spoken to some very famous photographers including Ben Chrisman, Gable Clintop, Gable Peterson, Sue Bryce. Andrew says he used to be part of the AIPP going to conferences and learning a lot. He was also an avid podcast listener and wondered why there weren't podcasts where you can learn the things you do at these conferences. So he set one up where you could. Sam asks about the photography industry. Andrew says its very similar the world over. You get out what you put in. You can make a great living and a great life, but you have to put in the time and work to make this happen. Sam asks time and work doing what. Andrew says everything in the business. Accounts, marketing, HR sales. Marcus says that marketing is so much more important than it ever was. Andrew says most people focus too much on getting more leads rather then working more on educating and converting those leads. So Andrew says it is important to ensure that you focus on how you convert leads into customers. Andrew says he was talking to a dog photographer who generated 150 leads at a dog show, but he is struggling to convert them. Unless he gets that proves sorted then then the show will be a waste of time. Andrew says he needs to work on a script, that doesn't sound scripted to talk through on the phone. To move them from a lead to a customer. Marcus moves onto problems photographers have. Andrew says many photographers count themselves as natural light photographers. Andrew thinks photographers using natural light only are often under skilled and lead to learn more about lighting. There is a show about lighting which you can find here. Marcus says you have so much more confidence having a full understanding of lighting. Sam asks what photographers should do to learn more about lighting. Andrew says Youtube tutorials are the simplest place to start. But then people also like teaching in person and getting some tuition from a photographer who offers training. The other thing is to simply get some lights and get out there and try them. Marcus asks about marginal gains that photographers could do in their business. Andrew says optimising your price list to allow your clients to spend more is a good thing to do. He talked to Sarah Louise Jackson a  photographer in Melbourne. Her pricing was setup to persuade customers to move up to the next level. Tony Tafe a headshot photographer in the US changed prices for headshot photographers in the US and made it easier for customers to spend more.   Sam asks if there is anything he has learnt from guests on his podcasts recently. He says he was talking to a family photographer who at the end of the season has an exhibition showing 1 shot from each photoshoot she has done. And everyone in the exhibition comes, brings their family and friends and she sells lots more photoshoots at the exhibition. He says for commercial photographers LinkedIn is very important and Jeff Brown is an expert on this, you can listen to the show with him here. Andrew says the technique Jeff uses on LinkedIn is to alternate business and personal posts. People interact with the personal post which then helps to boost his business posts. You can find Andrew and his Podcast here.

Nathan Pidd and Mike Robertson are VIP Creative. Together they run a video and photography business in Hull. Nathan had been doing photography as long as he can remember. He met Mike through a mutual friend and Mike helped on Nathan's first wedding. In the business they have now, Nathan heads the photography side and Mike heads the video side. After three years of running the business alongside full time jobs, they decided to run the business full time.  Nathan explains his training was through a fine art degree that then moved into lens media and really enjoyed using Photoshoot. After university he ended up opening up a print shop at the university and then also started teaching at the university. Sam asked how they managed with running a business after all of the focus on creativity at university. Mike says the accounts and marketing is something they have always struggled with. So their marketing does takes a back seat. They do outsource some things like accounts. Mike says when they started out they thought they would be able to finish early and work three days a week. But now he finds he works much longer hours than he ever has done before, but he enjoys it. Nathan says he was scared to be a photographer by himself, so having Mike alongside him make that move much easier for him. Nathan says it's great as they both have different skills. Sam asks if they have advice for others thinking of setting up a business as partners. Mike says they have creative differences and that can cause problems. You have to also make sure you get on really well as you will be tested on the way. Although you will have differences you have to agree on the core of the business. Mike also says think is this the person I can manage with when the going gets tough. Marcus asks if they have a niche and they say no. They work with a variety of businesses across video and photography. With their time in the industry they have done a wide range of things. Mike thinks this helps to maintain their creativity.  Nathan says they also enjoy the challenge of doing different things from one day to the next. Marcus asks about their setup. Nathan says he is a “lighting nut” and that's the first thing he focusses in on set. They also use the lighting for their video work as well as the photography. They also work together, so most projects they do together as a team. On site they work together and tend to have specific roles that they automatically get on with. They say their knowledge of sound and lighting means that the videos they produce have very high production values. Sam asks how they persuade people to use them and not their phone to make videos. Mike says the client needs to appreciate what they do, so they see the value. Mike also says they need to do both. Take photos and videos on your phone, but then also have the higher quality professional photos and videos too. You can find out more about the podcast on our website  Join the Facebook Group here and get the podcast delivered to your inbox every week here.

This show is about working with models but is also working with all sorts of different people on a shoot. How do you find a fashion model for a test? A test is a situation where everyone is working together for free to build images for their portfolio. It is a very typical way of starting the fashion world. Marcus says the first thing is what a fashion model looks like. Look at fashion magazines to get an idea for this. Marcus says that fashion models should look striking / unusual. Marcus says now there is a very positive change from everyone being very skinny to there being more body shapes seen in fashion. Although he says there is still a long way to go here. A good place to go to find a model to do a test with is a local model agency and then you need to find the newest models on their books. The newer models will be the ones who also want images for their portfolio. Agencies may ask to see your portfolio before letting you shoot one of their models. This can be an issue if this is also your first step into the world of fashion photography. But don't let this be a barrier to you, give it a try. Street casting is another way to find a model. So approach people on the street who you think would be a great model. Having a portfolio to show as part of this is helpful. There also online model agencies. Marcus thinks are not necessarily the best models for fashion shoots. But you can still approach them. Sam says setting up this test means you have a group of people all starting out in fashion who can all help each other as a network. Marcus now moves on to posing a model and this part of the podcast is also relevant to other areas of photography. Although he doesn't like the word posing. He has three ways to help get a model / subject to pose in a certain way. They are Mirroring, Role play, ObservationMirroring He got this idea from the photographer Richard Avedon. Basically you have to get “in tune” with the model and they will naturally mirror what you do without thinking about it. So if you cross your arms they do to. Role PlayMarcus says he does this a lot in brand photography. Marcus suggests scenarios and then the subject acts them outObservation This is about looking deeply at the subject, spotting what they do naturally, remembering it and asking them to do it again. He says there are many other ways but Marcus thinks these are the most effective. Marcus says one of the most important things on a shoot with a model, or anyone, is the “vibe” in the studio. Music is a good way to create a vibe, both using music the model like, but also the music can be used to effect the mood on the shoot.   Marcus's final hint is that if you are going to put together fashion shoot make sure you know who it is going to be for as different magazines have different styles.

Gareth says his focus is the monetisation of this autism. One of his obsessions is LinkedIn. And he decided with his knowledge of LinkedIn he should help people get better with Linkedin. Gareth is also a percussionist. Marcus explains we do have a show about what we can learn from the music business. Gareth has been on LinkedIn just a year after I began. He has been on it 14 or 15 years. LinkedIn has been owned by Microsoft for quite a long time. More recently Microsoft has been getting more involved and they have been pushing users into paying for the use of the platform. Gareth says that up until recently it's been possible to use LinkedIn as a free user. And if you use Linkedin to find a job then you can still manage free. But if you are trying to grow your tribe and your business it is very hard now without premium. It effects now even how much your posts are seen. LinkedIn give you a score your SSI score which you can find here. Having premium effects that score.   Gareth says that connecting with people is important and he has an connection message he thinks you should use. Gareth says an initial message ensures you get a higher connection rate and you get more of a response after the connection, if you started with a connection message. He thinks now up to 20 touches are needed on LinkedIn before you can get someone to do something you have asked. Gareth says commenting on other peoples stuff is really important. He also says posting about other peoples work and asking questions is a great way to go.  Gareth recommends having a camera in your LinkedIn profile photo. That enables connections to know what you do almost instantly. Gareth says he works on the principal that he gives away 80% of what he does. He wants people to see him as an authority in this field. So he gives them stuff people can test him on. They use it and then they start to trust him. Gareth then talks about the SSI. This is based on 4 different scores added together. Those four scores are different aspect of LinkedIn such as interacting and connecting. Posting regularly and commenting and liking other peoples content is another part. Gareth also recommends resisting using AI to create content. But says it's great for structure and helping to improve your content. Top voice is the next topic. For anyone with over 1000 followers you get asked by LinkedIn to comment on some things. You can use this to become a “top voice”. To do this you have to answer and write comments on AI generated content. So Gareth recommends follow the link when you are asked to comment, but then within that topic do not comment and move up to the top level where you can chose topics. You can then see all the topics A-Z. Pick one that is close to you, then in that section pick a sub-section relevant to you. Then comment only on topic in this area. Gareth recommends in these area to be provocative and ruffle some feathers. That will get responses. You only get top voice if your comments get further comments and interaction.   Gareth's final tip is ensure you have the odd spelling mistake in some things you do to show you are not AI. Also avoid “Z”s in your work, which shows that content has been made by AI using American spelling.

Bel is part of Turpin Accounting Services a business setup by her Mum. Bel she she fell into accounting. She started in retail management, but when her Mum's business expanded she needed help. Bel started doing data entry on her days off, and then applied for a role when it became available. So she started on admin, then moved onto bookkeeping, then accounting and did all the training in those areas on the way. Now she works with clients on business development. Marcus says he doesn't have an accountant and asks why he should use one as a sole trader. Bel says it's a lot about having someone to be able to ask the right questions. It's not that the accounts are often wrong it's just that as a business owner it's hard to see the bigger picture from your numbers. So she could help Marcus make more money, make him more tax efficient and things like that. What is the difference between bookkeeping and accountancy? Bookkeeping is the day to day data entry and organisation. An accountant does more advanced work such as end of year accounts or giving you advice. Sam asks as a photographer is it best to have an accountant or a bookkeeper. Bel says it depends what you want to get out of the business at the end of the day. Look at the time you are spending on accounts, is it worth handing that over to someone else? In terms of accounting it's a question of whether you want to move the business forward. Bel thinks there is education needed in terms of what things can be put through business expenses. Things like a home office, internet bills, gas, electricity and a percentage of the mortgage. Equipment can all go through as well as subscriptions like Adobe and CRM packages. Bel highly recommends using accounting software as it makes life easier. As the government is moving to making tax digital it means that almost all businesses will need to be using the software before too long. It's likely that will be for all businesses turning over more that £12k a year. Sam asks if Bel has any thoughts on which accounting software is better for as small business. She thinks Xero gives a bit more analysis than Quick Books. But overall they are all very similar. Marcus asks the advantages and advantages of being a limited company and being VAT registered. Bel says it's about what your business wants to achieve. Some large clients will only work limited businesses. As a Limited company you have different ways to get money out of the business which aren't available as a sole trader. Being VAT registered is again linked to bigger clients and some may expect you to be VAT registered. It has big effects on buying equipment and claiming VAT back. Sam wonders why more photographers don't become a limited company. Bel does warn that such a change tends to double your accountants costs. Bel does free accounting clinics once a month which can be found on Eventbrite Sam asks what a photographer does if he owns equipment and then starts a business. How you can account for this. Bel says you can, if you are a limited company you can sell the equipment to the business. So the business then owes you that money. Sam talks about equipment depreciating and accounting for that, but Bel says you will probably need an accountant to deal with this.The discussion also goes onto the fact that accountants need brand photographers and videographers. So make sure you talk to your accountant to see if you can help them with their photography. You can get in touch with Bel herehttps://www.turpinaccounting.co.uk bel@turpinaccounting.co.uk

 This episode is sponsored by Website for photographers. Website 4 photographers help photographers get more leads from their websites. You can get in touch here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠info@website4photographers.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠01482 765871 This week Sam talks about apps you can use in your business.   Accounting apps This is a vital part of all of our businesses. This can be done on excel, but this doesn't give you much business information. The app also makes your life easy in many ways. Once the template is set up sending invoices is quick and easy. The app also gives you key business information in the form of reports. It also makes paying VAT easy. Xero and Quickbooks are the biggest players in town. Zoho Books is an option and can integrate with other apps. There is also Wave which is much simpler than ⁠Xero⁠ and ⁠Quickbooks  but has some free features. The free  version is great but Sam doesn't rate the premium versionProject / business managementThese are effectively ways to organise your to do lists. We can get overloaded with post it notes, pieces of paper etc. These help us get more organised. They are great for repeating task lists that you can use for consistency with every customer. It also helps with tracking the day to day tasks you need to do.  The main apps here are Monday Asana and Trello. These do very similar things but in different ways. They all have free trials, so you can try them and see which one you like. For most photographers the free version of these will do the jobs you need.CRMThis is a customer relationship management tool. Many CRMS do a wide range of tasks. But, at that core they track all of the people you speak to and every conversation you have had with them. You can click on someone and see all the email, phone call and other conversations you have had with this person. It also allows you to set reminders to help you get back to leads or customers at the right time.  Most CRMs also do many other things such as email marketing and landing pages. Marcus uses Studio Ninja which is photography specific. Sam says it's easy to setup CRMs as as soon as anyone emails you they are entered automatically into the CRM. There are lots of CRMS. Sam uses Hubspot free version and has done for 6 years. There is also Freshworks and of course Zoho. Sam says in terms of a CRM, a photography business is like any other so Sam doesn't see how useful a photography specific CRM would be.   Book an appointment appMarcus brings these up as useful apps. They all do a similar thing. They hook up to your diary and allow people to book appointments. They work well. Marcus uses Calendly and Sam uses Doodle. It does save a lot of time going back and forth organising appointments. AISam says AI like ChatGPT is really useful for all sorts of things. For example checking a contract you've written, changing a blog into a LinkedIn article, giving you blog ideas etc. Don't use it for creating content though.Communication Apps WhatsApp Business is a great app. WhatsApp is a great way to communicate with customers and leads. It looks more professional that standard WhatsApp and is free. Slack is great if there are several people in your business. If there is just you it's a waste of time. But if there is several of you it is a great way to organise the communication within your business.  

Suzanne has been working fo the last 16 years as a personal stylist. Once people find what clothes suit them and work for them, shopping and dressing becomes so much easier. Suzanne was nurse for a while, but decided it wasn't for her. She then studied fashion and worked for various high street brands. From there she had her own shop. After she closed that business she trained as a stylist and has been working as a stylist ever since. Suzanne's shop was a ladies accessory shop with a café. Marcus points out that twenty years ago having a café in a shop has ahead of it's time. She trained and then worked with the House of Colour in Watford. Suzanne says now she tends to work with 40 plus business people. And the proportion of men she is working with is gradually increasing. With lockdown and the use of Zoom men are spending a lot more time looking at themselves and either getting bored with what they see or deciding they want some help with styling. We have spoken to a male stylist Nick Hemms. Suzanne works as a stylist with one photographer in particular, Suzanne Fells. She helps Suzanne's clients helping them find clothes that are appropriate before a photo shoot. This allows them to arrive at the photo shoot stress free, prepared and more in control. Marcus has asked what Suzanne does if brand colours don't suit a client going for a brand photoshoot. She says in that case she aims for neutral colours that fit them and the brand. Sam asks how she goes about finding what colours work for people. Suzanne says its about skin tone. She starts with the primary colours, red, yellow and blue. Once she has looked at skin tone and the colours she works out which work best together. Marcus asks how she makes sure that the clothes people  where are authentic. Suzanne says it's a lot about asking lots of questions about there current clothes and lifestyle. And asking lots of questions as people try different clothes.   Suzanne has regular photo shoots for her business with Suzanne Fells. Suzanne says that with all of the photos you can ensure you look authentic on social media while using all these new images. Marcus asks Suzanne to share some hints for photographers. Suzanne know how many outfits a client is going to need. Talk to them about ensuring they are clean and ironed and take them I a bag that won't crease them. Ensure the clients give themselves plenty of time before the shoot to sort their hair and make up. Marcus asks about colours. She says some colours are universal and work well for lots of people like teal and coral. Some light colours can look washed out in photos. Suzanne says dark colours, not necessarily black, give people authority. A jacket also tends to give authority. Suzanne also says those with brighter eyes tend to be able to wear brighter clothes. Suzanne also advices women on make up and hair colour. Marcus points out that we had a whole show about hair colour with Sonya Dove. Changing hair colour can change what clothes and colours work for them. Suzanne suggests that people get a style review every few years as skin tone and hair colour changes. Marcus asks about make up brands. Suzanne says she works with Colour me beautiful which is a colour based make up brand. She also no 7 recommends No 7. IN terms of make up for photo shoots, Suzanne says neutral is good, don't go too bright. Chanel have a virtual lipstick app so you can try different colours of lipstick.   Marcus says working with a clothing stylist is great for a photographer. Sam says although adding a stylist adds cost to the shoot, it does add a lot of value.Marcus asks if Suzanne could share a women and a man she would like to work with. Suzanne says she'd love to work with Mary Berry. She thinks she could work with Mary's make up. Suzanne says she'd love to work on Boris Johnson and tidy him up.

Pete is a New York headshot and portrait Photographer and musician. Peter started photography and music at the same time as a teenager. As a musician Pete is a Jazz musician. And he spent lots of time learning the music of the Jazz masters. He spent time working out bass lines of great jazz music. As you do this over time you start to absorb their work into your style and then develop your own style. And Pete then took this approach to photography. First he started working with New York headshot and portrait Photographer and musicians Peter started photography and music at the same time as a teenager. As a musician Pete is a Jazz musician. And he spent lots of time learning the music of the Jazz masters. He spent time working out bass lines of great jazz music. As you do this over time you start to absorb their work into your style and then develop your own style. And Pete then took this approach to photography. First he started working with Peter Hurley doing what Peter told him and absorbing his style. He then moved on to working with Ivan Weiss. Over time he has worked with others and used these to develop his own style. Sam asks how you can learn from a photographer at a distance if you can't speak to them. Pete says he did this with Dan Winters and he did work on replicating one of his photographs, from the composition to the lighting to every other element. He says you will learn so much more from this than looking at it in a book. Marcus thinks that photographers don't look at their history in the same way that musicians do. Pete says to be really good you need to go back and study the past masters before you can move forward with new style. He also says you can't bypass this process. You can go back before photography and study art as well. Pete says he came into photography through mentorship, no training. This has become easier with digital technology so you can work with photographers in different parts of the world. Pete now coaches photographers himself and he has a Facebook group associated with this. They discuss the similarities between Spotify in music and stock libraries in photography. Pete thinks it's best to avoid both as they are a very hard way to make money. Pete says professionalism is important both in music and photography. He has been at gigs where people turn up late, don't dress appropriately and more. It's important that you realise in both cases this is a business and you need to carefully think about that. He says some photographers don't return peoples phone calls. That is bad practice, gives a bad impression and loses you work. Marcus suggests that like musicians concerts are an experience, a photoshoot should be an experience. Sam takes us back to the discussion about Spotify and Shutter Stock and says whenever you use a platform go in with your eyes wide open as that will always be making money for the platform rather than you. Sometimes the platform is useful enough to make it worthwhile but be aware of that the platform are getting from that. Marcus has a selection of Photographers who are musiciansMilt Hinton is one that Pete comes up with. He documented his life in images. Marcus's are: Ansel Adams was a concert pianist as well as a photographer Graham Nash from Crosby Stills and Nash is a photographer Brian Adams also became a photographer.doing what Peter told him and absorbing his style. He then moved on to working with

Marcus used film for fifteen years. He thinks using film will develop your technique. He says it is magical seeing your own photo being developed on a dark room. Film slows you down and makes you think. Also black and white film will make you appreciate black and white photography and help you with your digital black and white images.   If you want to buy a film camera they have got more expensive than they used to be as they are becoming popular with collectors. A film camera may be around £250. Marcus says films start at around £6 a roll. Marcus doesn't see the point of using colour film for this. He thinks the key is using black and white and developing it yourself. Marcus says that Nikon F-Mounts mean that you can use modern lenses on an old body. That isn't the same with all manufacturers. To develop film you also need some equipment and you can get this quite cheaply on ebay.   To develop an image the film needs to go into a light tight tank and have some chemicals added. After a few minutes the film will be developed. Marcus says this needs to be done in a light tight room or a bag. The rooms doesn't have to be 100% dark. Marcus used to use his cupboard under the stairs at night.  After it's developed the film is washed and then needs to be dried out. At this point the work can be done in light. Most of creativity is done when printing images, but there is some creative things you can do at this development stage. The rest of the work needs a dark room, but you can have a red light bulb so you can see what you are doing. You can use a room in your house or clubs and local colleges may have dark rooms you can use. You do need an enlarger which is a more expensive piece of kit. But you can rent them and get them second hand on ebay. Printing the image involves 3 trays, each with different chemicals in. Marcus used to do this on an ironing board. Once you start this process there is lots of things you can control, for example the contrast. There is then dodging and burning which is about making different parts of the image darker or lighter. You can actually add colour tints as well such as sepia. And then finally the paper choice itself makes a difference the end result. Marcus says the development process is an experience in itself which is worth doing. He says having to pay for every shot on the film makes you slow down and think carefully.

This week the guest is Christine Saunders. Christine is an art buyer, producer and business coach for professional photographers. She helps photographers curate their websites to show their best works and ultimately get more work. Sam asks what is Christine helping these photographers with and why are they coming to her? Suzanne says she helps photographers help them see themselves more as CEO of a business. Think about all of the departments the CEO of coca cola might have. Generally photographers are great at the creativity and often get help with the accounting side, but there is much more to business than this. Especially marketing. How to create a business plan a marketing plan where you are consistently reaching out to promote yourself. Christine says a marketing plan is a hugely important part of being seen and getting work. But she also works in all sorts of others areas of the business helping to develop this. So she isn't an agent she is more like a business partner. Sam asks about target audience and how to decide who your target audience is. Christine says she does a lot of brain storming this with clients starting from the sort of photography they do and the sort of clients they want to work with. Christine doesn't work with any particular genre of photographer, she more works with photographers filling gaps in their business. Christine says by the nature of being a creative photographers have sensitivities. Christine is asking them to reach out and be more visible, but many don't feel happy doing that andso she supports them. Marcus asks how the market has changed for photographer since the start of the century. Back then there was no digital photography, no smart phones and no global campaigns. before different areas would run different campaigns from different photographers now it's more global. Getty has come in which has been good and bad for photographers. Some have thrived from this while others felt it has done a lot of damage. Marcus thinks a third one is the amount of people who are commercial photographers. Christine agrees that the number who are coming into the industry is very large. Sam asks if she helps photographers with pricing. She says that is something she helps with and she has stopped photographers not going in too low and to value themselves. Sometimes this means charging for extra things on top of the standard shoot fee. She says a lot of photographers do go in too low with price, but there is a balance here. She says it is also worth asking the client what budget they have. They won't always tell you this and it can be challenging, but usually someone has a budget, but they won't always share it with you. Marcus brings up licensing, being paid for the use of your images. He says in the US licensing is standard while this isn't the case except in the very top of the market in the UK. Christine seems less sure about this. She says that in much of the work she does then these recurring fees are collected. She also says if people want usage of the images included then that should be done under restrictions, such as a five year limit. Sam asks how photographers who do hide behind the camera a little could start to come out of their shell. Christine says go to any industry events you can. Photo London has just been on. These are great places to get inspired. You can also often get a portfolio review at these events. Another thing they could do is send some emails to people they already know. Marcus asks what photographers can do to aim for the top of their industry. She says she sees a lot of talent and it feels like she is the only one who sees it. She says step out there. Showing your work to the world even if it imperfect is a lot better than only you and your Mum seeing it. Also remember this is a business. It always needs to be looked at as a business, you need to step into those other roles.      

Sarah J Naylor is a lifestyle success coach and mentor. She helps people at crossroads in their life. Often a midlife point where you suddenly start asking questions about where you are and what you are doing. She works to help people understand what fires them up, how they want their life to looks and helps them work towards that. It is also about how you see your life and having the gratitude for what you have already. Marcus asks Sarah to define mid-life. Sarah says it's around 40 to 60, but age is just a number.  Sam says that kids leaving home could prompt that mid life re-assessment of who you are and what you do. Sam refers back to a recent podcast with Allie Crewe and she at that mid life, stopped teaching and became a photographer. Sarah has had quite a journey coming through a divorce and becoming a single parent to setting up her own business during a recession. Sarah says when she was married she now feels her life was on hold. Sam says there are people that are amateur photographers who would like to go pro, but aren't sure about it and are worried about it. He asks what Sarah would say to people like that. Sarah has a client in a similar situation with a photography degree, but has lost her confidence in taking photographs. Sarah says the key is just do it. Do what you enjoy. Find the thing that fires you up and do it. Don't worry about trying to get business from it, just do the type of photography you enjoy ad it fires you up. Sarah says you will then start to get work based on that work. Marcus totally agrees with this approach. Sarah then talks about lifestyle, income and what you want. The key is work out what you want and aim towards that. It might be you want to travel the world, so in that case you could work on how can earn money while travelling, rather than working hard to be able to afford it. Don't focus on the money, but equally do value yourself. Sam points out that this is linked to business planning, working out where you want to be and getting there. You can listen to this show here. Sarah says also that small shifts in your life can make the biggest differences in your life. Leading on from this Marcus asks how you get from A to B. Sarah says the first thing is working out in detail what B looks like. Until you have this in place you can't go anywhere. You then need to be mindful of your words, thoughts and actions. Step into the shoes of the person you want to be. Be positive. Be aware of the opportunities coming your way and take the ones that help you get to B. She says there is a balance here. Don't fake it until you make it, but you do have to step into the shoes of the person you want to be. So say “I am a photographer” make it positive. Marcus summarises Sarah's approach into three steps 1.Be clear where you want to go 2. Step into those shoes and own it 3. Be the best version of yourself Sarah loves this summary and says that covers it well. Be yourself and step into your own future. Don't let others pull you down. Surround yourself with great people who support you.    

 This episode is sponsored by Website for photographers. Website 4 photographers help photographers get more leads from their websites. You can get in touch here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠info@website4photographers.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠01482 765871 Why would we use Google Ads? You get instant results. As soon as you press go you get visitors to your website. But it means you have keep paying to keep those visitors coming. It can also be complex to setup.When should you use adsSam says the first thing you need to do is do some research before running ads. 1. You need to know your conversion rate (how many customers do you get for every enquiry). 2. You need to know the average amount of money you get from a customer 3. Find the ad costs for the ads you want to run. You need to use keywords here and the SEO planning podcast talks about this in more detail. You then need to work our the cost per click. The  you need to know for every website visitors how many calls you get. You then need to know how many calls it takes to get a customer. You need to use this to work out how much money you will need to spend to get one customer. That number needs to be low enough to make it worth you paying this much for a customer. You also set  monthly ad budgets which Google breaks down into days. Once your daily ad allowance is spent Google will stop showing your ad for the rest of the day. Ads can work if the price is right, but it is also easy to lose money on ads. Marcus said that people from Google Ads phone you to help with your ads setup. But remember their main job is to persuade you to increase your ad spend. Once you have done the maths and know the ad is worth running you need to think about the three parts of the ad. 1. The words 2. The ad 3. The destination you send them to The key is that the words, the ads and the destinations must all match up. The keywords should relate to the ad which should relate to the landing page. The landing page needs to be 100% focussed on the ad. Sending people from ads to your home page is a really bad idea. If these 3 parts don't all match then visitors won't convert into leads and Google may not show your ad. It is best to make a different landing page for every ad that you run that is dedicated to match that ad. Marcus comments that it's easy to spend a lot on ads. Sam says it's important to constantly evaluate how the ads are working for you. Give them a few months to bed in. Once they have settled in and they are not working at all turn them off. If they are working well great. If they are a bit borderline then it is time  to tweak the ads and the landing page. But only ever change one thing at a time. Make a single change, evaluate the results, then make another change and do the same. Remember the changes could be to the ads, keywords or landing page. But always make one change at a time. So remember get the flow from the words to the ads to the page and make sure it adds up financially.      

Meg is from San Deago, our first guest from the US. Meg is a brand photographer, and has worked with over 300 entrepreneurs. She always wanted to work in an area she had passion in. Twenty seven jobs later she started to work it out. While teaching English in Taiwan she bought a camera and started a travel blog. On her return to the US she decided she really loved photography and so started a business. She started doing all types of photography. Then one day someone asked her to do some branding photographs and this converted her to brand photographer. That business changing brand shoot was seven years ago. At that time photography was still a part time job. So then she started going to networking groups and meeting more business owners. Meg describes brand photography as bring broken down into brand photography and personal brand photography. Brand photography is for a product or business. While the personal brand is for the solo entrepreneur, one man band or family business. The personal branding is what Meg really likes doing. In this age of social media these branding photographs are so important for businesses. Meg now works less, adds more value and charges higher prices which allows her to spend time with her toddlers.  She enjoys the flexibility that a brand photographer can bring.  She enjoys the creativity of brand photography. If you want to get into brand photography then first of all spend some time getting to know how it works. A client will often have a bigger budget than a personal client. But you need to ensure you let them know what value they will get from your work. Meg also says the planning side of a brand shoot is essential and a key part of the this type of work. This is about finding out about their personality, brand , business and the end use for the photos. Getting in front of as many ideal clients is really important. It's a numbers game. The more people you can get in front of the more clients and the better clients you will gain. This is a part of the business photographers don't necessarily enjoy but it is vital for a thriving business. Marcus asks what makes a branding photograph different from a portrait. Meg says it tells a story. You want to try and capture the essence of what a business is through the use of photography. Meg says that although we say the photography market is saturated, this is not unique. Many other industries are the same and businesses in those industries need photography to make them stand out from the crowd.   Marcus and Meg agree that in branding the coffee cup and computer and overused, although they have both used them. They say that you need to get more creative than this. How could a brand photographer go beyond this? Props, location and wardrobe can help and make the photos more unique and interesting.  

Jamie runs Circle networks and he used to be a reluctant networker. Back in 2013 he had to go networking to find customers for his social media business. At the time most businesses were not on social media, so he had to go and find them. But he fell in love with networking and it took him on a long journey. Jamie says the business was providing social media for businesses that weren't using it at all. It was mainly Twitter. When Jamie started business he wanted to be able to do the school run. On that basis he never did breakfast networking. One of Jamie's clients pestered him for weeks and then he eventually went and enjoyed it and got some business. When he started networking he was offered training, which he thought he didn't need. Then Jamie eventually did some networking training. Using the training he moved from getting £18k of work in a year from networking to £88k a year. Jamie says we have all experienced just going networking and pottering along, but few of us think of training. His business also involved getting video testimonials which he enjoyed doing. That got busy and took him all over the country, which wasn't what he wanted to do. And people started to approach him for networking training, He eventually moved his business to doing that. He says it is around understanding what it is you really want. Jamie says before networking, he thought carefully about who he wanted to work with. He decided he wanted to work with a franchisee. His plan was to do excellent work with one franchisee, get referred to others. This worked well and in the end he also ended up working for the head office. All from doing a little planning before going networking.   Marcus thinks most people are just “winging it” in networking rather than planning. Jamie also says what you would wear to networking should be the same as what you would wear to meet a dream client. He says for Zoom meetings many people don't make any effort at all.  He also talks about what people see on the background of your Zoom calls. Marcus has some lighting which shows exactly what he does. Marcus also says he has made Zoom backgrounds that were slide shows of his work and people loved it at the networking events. Jamie's top networking tips 1. Prepare. Don't just jump from one call to another with no breaks and no planning. 2. Arrive early. You would never arrive late for an in person event so don't online 3. Go networking with one thing in mind. It might be you are looking for support, a recommendation, an accountant or anything else,  but go with one aim in mind. If you are going for referrals. Have one in mind and be crystal clear. Treat it like a marketing campaign. You could do it as simple as explain who your latest client is or your ideal client is. You want people in the room to be able to filter all the people they know down to one, who they will introduce them to. 4. Be proactive with referrals. Go out and find people to refer, don't just refer people you happen to come across. Jamie says for example while speaking to people he asked them if they had business insurance and then when it needed renewing. If the renewals were coming up he would pass them on to a connection who sold insurance.   Jamie has a photographer he works with on quarterly shoots. He says his face is his personal logo. Using photographs of ourselves is not showing off, it's personal branding. He also says that as he's used more professional photos he has found his social media reach expand. Most people though don't know the value they would get from professional photos. It is therefore important that photographers explain what value they deliver with a photoshoot.  So while networking talk about your clients and then the follow up is really important. Jamie said he made a decision to pass more referrals than ever before. And as a result of that he has been passed more referrals than ever before.

Marcus says the show was triggered by a client he had recently who wanted images cropped in a very specific way. Back in the days of film Marcus says it was a lot simpler and to some photographers it was a badge of honour not to crop their images. There were of course a great deal of different film sized and ratios back then including: 35mm – which were a 2x3 ratio 6cmx6cm so a 1x1 ratio 6x7 ratio was also possible for magazine covers. Large format 5x4 was also available There also camera specifically for panoramic images that were a range of formats and sizes. Back then once you had chosen your film that was about it. Now with websites and social media these is so more to think about and so many different sizes. And when shooting you need to think about what crop you will use at the end. For example a website header might be a 2:1 ratio, quite cinematic, while an Instagram reel will be 16x9 in portrait mode, which is very challenging to shoot. Sam says when shooting for a website you need to remember that the images will be auto-croppped so it needs to cope with a range of crops. Marcus says when shooting a website banner think first about if there will be text over the image. If there will be ask for an overlay so you can work out where the text would go on the image. View finders allow you to have crop marks (like rule of thirds) and these can help you think about the final crop you will have. There are lots of sizes needed for social. For example for a profile banner a really wide thin shot is needed. Because there is such a range of image sized needed it's important to ask the client what the client is going to use the images for. It's a great value add for the customers providing them with pre-cropped images for different platforms and uses. Doing this also ensure that your images are shown in their best light when used. Marcus loved the square Instagram photograph format, but with the move to reels being more popular, then this is a move away from squares to 16x9 portrait. As he has said before this is a challenging format to shoot in. When thinking about cropping you also need to think about file size. If you are going to heavily crop an image you need to ensure it is a large file size that can cope with the crop. Marcus suggests another thing that can make you stand out from other photographers is making videos from still images and giving them to your client. Marcus suggests using Canva for this and Sam suggests using CapCut. Marcus says making gifs for clients is another thing you can do them.  

Jo wants to help people who don't want an average vision. She asks them if the level of effort they are putting in reflects in their bank balance, but for most people that is not the case. Jo finds that most people don't know how to sell or land business. Once she helps them with that they can afford her and move everything else forward. One of the things Jo shows people is that it doesn't matter what you do, it's how you present yourself that is important. And once they do that the work follows. Jo says she helps people present themselves in the best possible way. But there is a problem. People can see her, and in many ways photography, as a luxury. So a photographer needs to show a potential customer what they are going to gain from the photography, and what losses will be avoided. Marcus explains what she is saying follows a Japanese philosophy he follows Ikigai. It has four tenants. Jo has mentioned two of them. Getting paid for what you do and adding value. Jo says if you don't believe in yourself you are never going to get work. She also says the prices needed to reflect your value. And if you are very good at what you do, charge accordingly.  The conversation then moved onto mindset and Jo says the key is that it is simple. But that doesn't mean it is easy. The first step is self awareness. Be able to see the  doubts and negativity in your mind. That awareness then flows onto to the changes being possible. They discuss the Jeff Olson book The Slight Edge that talks about this gradual change. In Marcus Galdwells Outliers he says you have to put 10,000 hours into something to become an expert. Jo says it is a journey and you need to enjoy that journey. Ask what a confident person would do and how would they behave.  Jo says awareness and little and often changes are really key. That self awareness and confidence is vital to the process of photography. Jo says it's important that this inner confidence is important. And that the work on improving ourselves is vital every day.  Not many people like their photograph being taken and so that confidence and calmness is essential. Jo likens your self confidence to being on a perch. If you have self belief and self confidence then day to day issues won't knock you off your perch. But if your confidence is not in place, you can easily be knocked off your perch. Marcus brings up the idea of melancholia and getting creativity from the darker times. Jo says that everyone will go though these times but what's vital is that when you go through this you are aware what is happening and being aware that “this too shall pass”. Working through it is more possible with strength and resilience.   Other book recommendations Beyond positive thinking, Dr Robert Anthony The courage to be disliked    As a final thought Marcus brings up sods law, which he thinks he is effected by. Jo says here partly this is about letting go and saying what am I doing this day to make this day count. 

 This episode is sponsored by Website for photographers. Website 4 photographers help photographers get more leads from their websites. You can get in touch here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠info@website4photographers.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠01482 765871⁠ This week Sam is talking about using Google Business and Google maps for your business. Google maps is great for photographers, as most photographers want local clients. Google maps is the app we all know where you can find your nearest hairdresser, or photographer. Google maps gets it's information from Google business, or Google my business as it used to be known. Google business is a system that is free to use and easy to setup. It gives your business a pin on Google maps, information on Google maps and information about your business appears on the right hand side during a desktop Google search. For photographers that work all over the country Google maps isn't that useful. But, for those wanting local clients it is very valuable and can get you a lot of local leads. If you get your Google maps account setup correctly it can delivery a lot of leads. Location For most photographers the location for your business is their house. For a few it is a studio, but most are home based. If your home is in a large urban area, like Marcus here in Bristol, then your location really helps as you have lots of potential leads nearby. If you live out in the sticks it is more challenging for Google maps to deliver good results for you. If your location is in the middle of no where one option is to pay for a local virtual address in a local urban area. You can often pay co-working spaces or accountants for a virtual address service. NameIf your business name has photographer in the name that really helps. Fancy names are a nice idea in theory, but if your business has photographer, or something like brand photographer in the name that will really help you getting found on maps.   Category Google business gives you a choice primary and secondary categories and you need to think carefully before choosing these. If you are a general photographer then your main category is photographer. You can then add other sub-categories for the types of photography you offer.  But if you are a wedding photographer you may want wedding photographer as your main category. The key is plan this carefully. Also some types of photography, such as brand photography are not categories that exist. Review These are really important. Get customers to leave reviews for you on Google. This is very important for Google maps and SEO in general. Lots of reviews and recent reviews are really important.  Keep pestering your customers to give them reviews. Do not simply ask once and forget about it. Keep asking until they leave you one. If you search for ‘photographers' in your area in Google maps, most of the photographers there will have lots of reviews.   Services This is important. Get all of your services onto Google business. List as many as you can. And for every service use all the space that is available in the description. You can break your services down into sub services to add more. Photographs Adding photographs in Google maps as a photographer is essential. Add as many as you like. Description You get to add a large description of your business. Use all the space you have available. Think carefully about what you say. Posts You can post on Google maps. It seems odd and gets almost no interaction. But, it means when people find you on Google maps they can see recent content from you. It also helps you getting found. Look at your competition Look at the other photographers locally, see what their Google business account is like. Then work on your to make it better than theirs Google search Remember your entry in Google maps will show up in a standard Google search as well as Google maps search.

Zoe runs Ask Zoe and calls herself a consultant with a difference. She focusses not just on your business, but also on marketing. So she educates customers on what to do, when and how to help you grow. Sam and Zoe met four or five years ago pre-Covid when Zoe ran Fab Events. This business was setup in 2016. Zoe grew the business with 4N, the networking group Sam and Zoe were involved with at the time. The name Fab came because people kept saying “Zoe you are Fab”. Even in this business she was doing marketing as well as events. When Zoe started Fab events, she said she could do all events, which she realises now probably wasn't the best idea. While Zoe was running lots of events she spent a lot of time working with event photographers. She says if you are at an event you will usually need more than one photographer. There is usually too much going on for one person to capture. You can be the main photographer in the room, but you will need other photographers at other places, such as arrivals. That doesn't mean as a single photographer you can't do events like these. It means you just will need to collaborate with other photographers. The reason Zoe called the business Ask Zoe is that she has built and kept relationships over a long time and those people who she is connected to will always Ask Zoe. Covid brought big changes to Zoe's business and from a business point of view she sees it as a blessing. It gave her a chance to stop and reflect on what she had been doing and what she wanted to do going forwards. During Covid, Zoe was busy analysing the news and working out what would happen next and what she needed to do. As Covid was building in early 2020 events were already being effected before the UK population. This was due to early restrictions on imports. At this stage Zoe decided the best thing for her to do was focus on online events management. What happened during this time Zoe's business was doing well while many in the industry were fading. And so Zoe's connections were asking what she was doing. She had been using a 7 step consultancy strategy that she had been trained in at Hilton and at University, and was using this in her business. But many people were feeling overwhelmed during Covid, so she stripped it down to a 4 step process. Zoe then found that her business was only 5% events and 95% marketing and consultancy. She then talked to a lot of people including Collette Evans who does her branding photography to Clare Froggett who does Zoe's branding and she developed Ask Zoe. So most of what she does is marketing and brand consultancy. Sam asks if there is some common things that photographers could do to improve their business. Zoe says it really depends on the business and Zoe always starts with a call to see what help people need. But business owners tend to feel overwhelmed in terms of what they need to do to get to the next level they want to reach. Zoe has worked with a few photographers and tends to find that they are very creative and tend to focus on this creativity, rather than what they need to grow their business. Creative people tend to be a little introverted and their creativity is their output. Zoe talks about getting KPIs (key performance indicators) in place in your business. These are just goals, nothing complicated. But things you need to focus on to get the end result. This is related to the show on business planning. Sam and Zoe discuss the types of KPIs photographers may have. For example it might be to do three weddings a week in the peak season, but have a month off in winter. But other photographers may simply to just do one wedding a weekend. The key is it's relevant for you and your business. Zoe says a business a plan should be like a story, have a beginning a middle and an end. The middle is how you make it happen and how you join the dots.

This week Marcus talks about building a portfolio as a photographer. He breaks this down into three areas, photographs, pace and presentation. Marcus starts by taking about Robert Frank and his book 'The Americans', that was published in 1960. He took photos and made what he called about a visual poem out of them. Marcus encourages you to look at the book and focus on the fact that it is a series of images. Sam asks why a photographer wants a portfolio. Marcus says there are two reasons. One is to get more work. The other is to present a body of work. Years ago a portfolio was leather bound and shown to people to show your work. Marcus still has some of these. Clearly now there are many more options. You could have pdfs, movies and more, but printed material still has it's value. And printing out work and showing it to clients will make you stand out from the crowd. You can also make a slide show to go at the back of Zoom calls during networking meetings.  Marcus thinks 20 to 30 images in a portfolio is about right. Less is more. Sam says that on websites photographers usually add far too many images. When you are putting together a portfolio the beginning and the end are really key. They are the parts people remember. The middle is almost a filler. The beginning and end does not need to be your best shot. It may be more your most impactful or alternative to get attention. Tweaking portfolios for the viewer is also really important.  Marcus says to look at your portfolio from the back forwards, remember some people flick through books this way (if it is physical). Think about how the photographs are arranged. So colours for example, or work on themes. Working through a time frame can also work. The key is do not put them together randomly. Sam introduces the ides of adding humour in there and Marcus agrees this is a great idea. Finally Marcus talks about pace. Allowing space and allowing your portfolio to breathe. Marcus gives examples of leaving blank pages or part pages. Marcus explains that he offers online portfolio reviews that can be booked in via his website.

Jeff Brown is a photographer and Photographer mentor. He works with photographers in twenty five different countries, he is an ambassador for Olympus cameras ,he is President of the BIPP and he has written four best selling photography business books. His fifth book is being written at the moment. He aims to help photographers get past the procrastination and get on with their business.   Jeff first came across the BIPP while he was in the military. The BIPP is the oldest professional association and was formed in 1901. At the time Jeff was training in the Royal Navy as a photographer and the BIPP certified his course. His course was 26 weeks with 26 exams, it was hard work. But Jeff passed, became certified and became a member.   Jeff has been president for the last year. He has realised that the association needs to appeal to younger and a more diverse membership. The BIPP is now open to anyone around the world. As it is so old it has a large archive of documents photographs and more. The head office of the BIPP is in Preston.   Jeff and Marcus then talk about what the BIPP do now. They have a monthly image competition. Photographers can add a single image for free and add more if they wish. It has brought members together commenting on each others work in a positive way and spurs people on to get involved. Jeff says some people ask what they get from the BIPP. He says the key is you get out what you put in. There is now a BIPP podcast, an active Facebook group a legal advice team, public liability insurance for members, a resources library (for your businesses) and more. The membership also gives you membership to the FEP which is the Federation of European Photographers and a membership of over 50,000 photographers. Being such a large organisation they have a strong voice. There are two membership levels. Active membership and non-active membership. The non-active is for those who were in business, no longer work in photography or have retired, but want to remain part of the organisation.   Marcus asks where Jeff sees commercial photography at the moment, he says there are more professional photographers than there ever have been. But there is also more demand than there ever has been. Businesses no longer just get photographers in once or twice a year, they get them in much more regularly to feed the demand for social media images. Most competition is at the bottom end of the market which is very price sensitive. These photographers are generalists. So Jeff says the best thing you can do as a photographer to get out of this, is to get a niche, become a specialist, build a brand and put your prices up. There are people out there willing to pay for photography. To get that work you need to niche, build your brand and look high end. So provide a first class service, understand your customers need. And the bottom end of the market isn't going to get any easier with the likes of AI. Jeff says there is huge amount of automation in many fields like car plants and farms. But there are still lots of people in these areas and it is the same with photography, it will always need people. Remember that taking the photographs is only one part of the story. We need to ensure we explain the rest of this story to potential clients to show the value we provide. Jeff says some images on social are clearly AI or AI altered and aren't as realistic as proper photos and do not get as much engagement on social. For events like weddings a person will always be needed to capture the event. Marcus thinks that a photographer selling ideas is the future, not just an image. Jeff says this is a great idea, providing videos and other extras with a photoshoot adds value. Jeff is very confident about the future of photography. But he says it's important to remember to look at your business and remember that the image is only one part of the service you provide.    

This episode is sponsored by Website for photographers. Website 4 photographers help photographers get more leads from their websites. You can get in touch here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠info@website4photographers.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠01482 765871 Sam talks about who is your ideal client or customer. First Sam explains why you want to an ideal customers. If you think “anyone” is your client, your messages is bland and doesn't land with people and so “nobody” listens. While if you have a specific audience in mind when you are writing your content it is much more engaging and interesting for that audience. So the first thing to do is decide who your ideal client should be. A good place to start is to think about your current clients. Are some of those ideal clients? What makes them ideal? Then try and find out more about them, things like age, gender hobbies, etc. For Sam the two things that makes them ideal clients is that they are profitable and enjoyable to work with. Marcus also points out that the target market needs to be large enough. Marcus says at networking events he always said I work with coaches and motivational speakers. And they are the people he now works with and the people that gets referred to him. Sam points out that there are 120,000 photographers in the UK on Linkedin and many more photographers, so there are lots of them that you need to stand out from and having content targeted to your ideal client helps with that.   There are other things to think about with ideal clients like how easy are thy to reach an connect with. They also need to be definable. They are also a group which you can provide value to. Marcus brings up the idea of having a tribe and Sam points out that's a big thing in Seth Godin's books. Marcus says that for him and many businesses their ideal clients are people just like them. Once you have decided who your target audience is you need to clearly define them with things like age, gender, hobbies, work, family. People then make avatars. So invent people that could be in your target audience. Give them a personality. Then when writing content aim it at one of your avatars. You also need to think where are you going to find this target audience, which social channels or print media.   Marcus says it's clear that doing this exercise really helps you to get work.

 Emma runs Natural Aspect. She creates images for her clients so they can market their brand with ease and confidence. And Sam said that is reflected in her social media where she is promoting herself with confidence. The name of the business has changed many times over the years. During her last rebrand she was in the mountains in Wales. She as looking for a name that reflected her style, capturing the natural look and the logo reflected the mountains. Sam asked about TikTok and Emma said she was dragged onto it by a marketing coach. Emma says her ideal clients re not really there, but their kids might be. So TikTok is not a strong focus, but something she uses. LinkedIn is her main social media. Emma has been a photographer for seventeen or eighteen years. She has changed the focus of her business many times during this period. This is partly because she is a military family so has to move around a lot. Currently Emma works with businesses as this works with her and her family life. Sam and Emma discussed the point that moving a photography business is hard. For Emma she was in Lincolnshire before the pandemic and is back now, so that has helped. Emma says niching has really worked for her and helped her with her marketing and messaging. She doesn't work with any particular businesses. Marcus asks what differentiates a brand photographer from any other sort of photographer. Emma says branding photography brings together skills from a wide range of photography genres. She spends a lot of time researching her clients, getting to know them. This way by the time it gets to the day of the shoot it's all carefully planned. The customer knows what they need to do on the day, as does Emma. Emma really enjoys this side of her business. For example she worked with an accountant taking pictures of them tap dancing, which was their hobby. Emma also does charity work with Remember My baby. They offer free remembrance photography for families that have had a loss before, during or after birth. It's a tough subject and one that not many people talk about. She currently supports Lincolnshire hospitals with that. She goes into hospitals and take pictures of families. Every shoot is different, the mood, how much they want to talk, what they want and more.   Marcus asks about other charities and Emma in that case worked with families with children with life limiting conditions. That the Butterfly Wishes Network. Again Emma gave her time freely here and found the work very rewarding. Marcus like to play devils advocate and asks what Emma thinks about working for charities for free. Emma says if she was going to provide marketing material for a charity she would charge. She sees that as different from being part of a charity which you are helping and feel emotionally attached to. This becomes a wider discussion between Sam and Marcus about getting paid for charity work.   Sam asks Emma what she would say to explain the cost of services. She said this could include added value to the package, it's about promoting yourself and so having the reputation. It's about being able to listen and also having the right kit for the job. The discussion went onto the area of balancing listening and directing on a shoot. There is a podcast about listening, that is relevant here. Having a level of confidence is important here, to be able to do the direction well. Emma has just returned from a family trip to China where her brother and family live. She had an amazing trip and recommends visiting.

Marcus talks about repetition in this show. Repetition was a core part of the five Rs show which you can listen to here. Marcus has recently been to a Martin Parr talk. What Marcus found is that Martin has done huge amounts of fashion photography, which he wasn't very aware of. Marcus explains that this is partly because he does what Marcus talked about in another recent episode alternative genres. To recap the previous episode the 5 rules of creativity in photography are Research Rules Repetition Reflection Rest   Marcus in this show focusses on repetition. Repetition splits down into three areas Learning Improving Diversifying Learning If you are learning photography, it is best to photograph things that you can go back to again and again. So something at the bottom of the garden rather that what you see on holiday. This also means you are focussing on the mundane, so you have to try to make it interesting. Marcus says take a picture, look at it reflect on it, then take it again. Keeping repeating, reflecting and learning. Marcus says this idea works just as well for more experienced photographers. Marcus thinks this is a great way to get to know your kit and getting to know shutter speeds, apertures and more.   ImprovingIf you are an improving photographer you want to go an photograph things multiple times. Thinking about varied weather, varied times of day, varied lighting conditions. Marcus says when you repeat things you are growing the connections in your brain. But it's important that critical reflection is combined with repetition. Diversifying There is a style of photography where photographers photograph something again and again in a very similar way, this is called Typology. Bernt and Hilla Becher, Thomas Struth, Lewis Baltz are all photographers who have used this. They tend to photograph a series of photos of something similar. Edward Munch's the Scream is a block print that works in a similar way. As a photography example the Bechers were photographing gas tanks over time. Years apart but from the same position and with the same weather so they are very similar shots.  

Robin Thompson says he is an IT stress reliever working with small and medium-sized businesses helping ensure that their IT is not causing them stress. Sam and Robin have known each other for a long time having started their business at a similar time and having run a networking event together. Robin's journey into IT has been an interesting one. As a child of the 80s he has been using computers since he was a child. Robin spent ten years in financial services and then moved to working in higher education. He did do some first line IT support as part of his role. But also did things like exam timetables for the University of Hull. At one stage Robin was offered the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy from the University, At the same time Helen his wife and co-director was between jobs and so they decided to take the redundancy and setup the business. Sam asks what photographers need to think about in terms of their IT. Robin says for those in creative industries you will need high spec equipment and lots of processing power. Backing up your data is an important thing to think about. But due to the file sizes that photographers deal with are very large so that cloud storage can start to get very expensive. Robin suggests one way of doing this is having project files on cloud storage, but use external hard drives to backup the raw photo files. Backblaze is  service that some photographers use as the storage is a lot cheaper than Google or Microsoft cloud storage. In terms of security Robin says the built in security has got a lot better over the years on Windows computers. He also reminds us that Macs, contrary to popular opinion, can get viruses. They can also pass viruses onto Windows computer and it is not good for your business if you accidentally pass viruses onto customers, so ensure macs have 3rd party anti-virus software on them. Robin says domains and emails are also important. Some small businesses use Gmail or Hotmail addresses for their business and this does not look very professional. Then have a professional email system around that, that will scan incoming and outgoing emails. Spoofing is a challenge at the moment (spoofing is someone pretending to be someone else). Good email scanning will deal with this. On top of this email marketing needs a domain based email address. Because we do have problems like spoofing there are now systems in place to prevent this. But this does also mean it can be harder to deliver genuine email. When properly setup this isn't a problem, but setting up email accounts correctly is correct.   Robin explains that backups are much more than photos. Emails, invoices, contact information and more, all needs backing up. If these aren't backed up it could cost you your business. Robin has used photography in his business and he says you can tell when photography has been done professionally. Robin had the opportunity to be in a magazine with a focus on his wife in the business. They got professional photography for that and thought the results were excellent. Although you can take photos with a phone, it is not the same. Sam asked Robin to share his experience of using professional photographers. Robin thinks that initial conversation, before the photo shoot is very important. It's a careful balance of  the photographer providing expertise and suggestions with listening. Also many people are very uncomfortable in front of the camera and so making people at their ease in front of the lens is important. He likes the idea of a retainer for photographers but doesn't work on that basis with his photographer.