189: Kristen Cook – Design a Photography Business Lifestyle Around your Family

Premium Members, click here to access this interview in the premium area.

Kristen Cook of kristencook.com.au is a multi-award winning Melbourne based photographer specialising in newborn, baby and wedding photography. She gave up work as a Lawyer after her daughter was born 9 years ago and was drawn to photography. Since then, her business and photography have both evolved into something very special. The real beauty is Kristen operates this successful business around her family's needs with plenty of time to be the perfect mum.

She describes herself as a love chaser and light painter and when you see Kristen's photography you'll notice beautiful light, uncluttered simplicity, beautiful moments and a love of black and white. Specifically with her baby photography, I see crops and details I don't see from other photographers and I think that's what first drew me to her work.

Here’s some of what we cover in this interview:

• Why Kristen left a career as a lawyer to pursue a business in photography
• How Kristen learned the photography skills required for a successful business
• Kristen’s annual turnover / gross income
• Surpassing a lawyers income with a newborn photography business
• The charge more work less philosophy
• Does Kristen see herself as a photographer or a business person?
• How Kristen structures her business
• What’s best for your business when considering your pricing structure?
• Photography style
• Following a shooting schedule only after prioritising your family needs
• How to politely decline a client who can’t work within your schedule
• Developing a business lifestyle centred around your family
• The number of weddings Kristen books each year and why she does any at all
• Why Kristen prefers shooting with natural light
• Why Kristen stopped shooting on location, instead focused on shooting at her home studio
• Is it really necessary to open a storefront studio to prove your success?
• The way to make your photography business successful
• How Kristen came up with her pricing structure
• Average spend rates of clients
• The importance of setting pricing expectations from that first inquiry
• Why Kristen still shoots weddings when she’s doing great with newborn photography
• Where to learn more from Kristen

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear lots more content and we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed for and include:

• Helping clients decide prior to their ordering appointment
• Why it’s so bad to put your clients on the spot when making purchase decisions
• Soft proofing images until you get your client’s final decision on which images to pick
• Where Kristen gets slideshow music
• Why you should leave your clients alone when looking at their photos during the ordering session
• How to avoid making your clients have that “can’t commit feeling”
• How to cement a clients purchasing decision
• Sales strategies during an ordering appointment
• Kristen’s most popular collection
• Does Kristen consider cost of goods when pricing her photography?
• Where Kristen’s clients come from
• Relying on word of mouth – good idea or bad
• How Kristen makes use of social media to generate bookings
• Why you need to find who your influencers are
• Does Kristen make it easy for her clients to share her work in social media

If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interview with Kristen, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.

I’m pretty persistent like that. I will keep going and keep doing it until I get it right. I always knew that if I committed to doing it, I had to make it work – Kristen Cook

Plus, access to a members only Secret Facebook Group where you can connect with other members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take what you hear in each episode and put it into action. You will not find more friendly, more motivated and caring photographers online.

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Kristen shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below, let me know what your takeaways were, what you plan to implement in your business as a result of what you heard in todays episode.

I wanted people to book me because they liked my style, not because they just randomly walked past my studio – Kristen Cook

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Kristen or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners means more interviews and ultimately a better show.

If you have left a review in the past, thank you!

If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.

PLUS: if you let me know the key word or keyword phrase you'd like me to use to link to your page, post or site, let me know via email after leaving a review and I'll do what I can to make that work.

For example, If I were linking to my wedding photography page on my photography website ” Impact Images” and want to target the keyword phrase “Central Coast wedding photographer” and left an iTunes review, I'd add something like this:

Thanks for the iTunes review by Central Coast wedding photographer, Andrew Hellmich on September 20, 2016

Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast  and email me your key words or keyword phrase and where you'd like me to link to.

Here are the most recent reviews:

Great value from World's Best Photographers

In iTunes by London wedding photographer, Matt Badenoch from the UK on October 6, 2016

I'm a London based wedding photographer who's been listening to the Photo Biz podcast for over a year. I've been very impressed with the calibre of guests Andrew gets on the podcast to interview. The conversations are fun and very informative, which is key for adding value to your business. There's definitely a sense that nothing's being held back. Keep up the awesome work Andrew!

Great Photography Podcast

In iTunes by Fiji wedding photographer, Anais Chaine on October 1, 2016

Not only Andrew is truely amazing at interviewing his guests but the guests are always a fascinating discovery. They share interesting stories and facts around their work and journey. I highly recommend that podcast without hesitation : it is so inspiring!

Update/thank you/bit of a self congratulation time

I want to add a special thanks and shoutout to Premium Member and Gold Coast pet photographer Sam Gilmore for allowing me to use his post and from the Members Facebook Group in todays episode who wrote:

I'm shooting Pet photography and have just started. I got my first client from contacting a local dog trainer and asking if she had two clients that she would like to offer a free shoot to.

So far I have had the one get in touch with me, done the shoot, did in person sales with the proofs (thanks to Kristen) and they have purchased just over a grand worth of prints!

All of this stuff I have learnt from these podcasts over the last two months – thanks so much Andrew!
So stoked I could find parts of these podcasts I could implement even in the absolute beginnings of a photography business.

Blown away by all of this, hopefully it keeps up.

In addition and just updated by Sam…

Also as a follow up on Sunday, I had a meeting with a local supplier of dog accessories and are setting up a fundraiser with the Animal Welfare League (AWL) that we are going to shoot next weekend and then advertise that I will be donating 90% of the session fee from 10 shoots.

All of this coming from everything I've learnt over the past few months from you and your guests. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy about how it's going!

Thanks for the Voicemail Todd!

It's not often I receive a voicemail but I love getting them! I received a message from Austin Texas photographer Todd White which I happily played on todays show.

Thank again Todd!

If you would like to leave a message yourself, simply click the button on this page and record away – I'd love to hear from you too.

The NEW Photography Xperiment Podcast is live and available

Following the success and support shown by listeners after the experimental format of the recent interviews, the new Photo Xperiment Podcast has been launched and is available on this site and in iTunes now.

Interviews are underway and I'll be looking for new guests, not restricted to wedding and portrait photographers. If you have someone you think would be a good fit, let me know in the comment area below or email me, andrew@photobizx.com.

The idea behind these interviews is to get into the headspace of the photographer and find what makes them tick, what drives them, their thought process, philosophy on shooting and how they achieve what they do with their photography. So yeah, a little technique type content too.

These interviews will not focus on the business of photography – that'll be preserved solely for the weekly and unchanging format of the PhotoBizX podcast.

To hear these interviews in your podcast app, you will need to subscribe to the podcast – these interviews will not be delivered automatically if you're subscribed to PhotoBizX. Open your favourite podcast app and search “Photography Xperiment Podcast” or enter the feed URL,  https://photobizx.com/feed/xperiment/ into the search field of your podcast app.

The last episode featured CJ Chilvers who shared his thoughts on photography, blogging and writing and why as a photographer, you NEED to see yourself as a publisher to stay relevant.

None of us are just photographers anymore. In fact, all of us are publishers now – CJ Chilvers

Listen to the interview to hear more about this talented writer and his views on photography, the photography business and why writing has become so important if you want to be a true storyteller. Which you do by the way because as CJ puts it, “If you’re a good storyteller, you can be a great salesman. You can be a great anything.”

The interview is available here: CJ Chilvers Photography Podcast Interview

You don’t have to throw your life up in the air just to make things work for clients – Kristen Cook

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Kristen Cook Website

Kristen Cook Pricing page

Kristen Cook Wedding Photography

Kristen Cook on Facebook

Kristen Cook on Pinterest

Kristen Cook on Instagram

Kristen Cook on Twitter

Barb Uil

Newborn Magic with Kristen Cook by Sarah Jane Young

Triple Scoop Music

Pro Select

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening to the show and thanks to Kristen for coming on and sharing her thoughts, views and ideas for running a fantastic (and successful) photography business.

Knowing who my target market is makes me understand why these things work so well for me – Kristen Cook

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew