Chris Garbacz of Epic Photography in Melbourne is an entrepreneur in the true sense of the word. He has launched 8 separate businesses and is only 32 years old! It's no secret that focusing on the business side of photography is the best way to achieve financial success. This is exactly what Chris has done from day one with his business.
He currently owns and runs the wedding side of the successful wedding and portrait photography studio, Epic Photography in Melbourne Australia.
He's also recently launched, Studio Ninja – arguably the most simple, beautiful and intuitive studio management software for portrait and wedding photographers.
I get the feeling after a few emails back and forth, Chris is totally into business and is willing to give anything a try in regard to marketing, advertising and sales processes. It's difficult to gauge excitement or enthusiasm from the written word but I could sense the buzz in every piece of correspondence we had.
Once the interview starts, it was obvious I had hit the mark with my assumption… Chris loves business and even better, he loves talking about what's working what's not and sharing everything.
Here’s some of what we cover in this interview:
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:
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 Chris, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.
Plus, access to a members only Secret Facebook group where you'll 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 up for the challenge and wiling to invest a little time and effort into yourself, your writing and your business. If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to share links to your blog posts – I'd love to check them out.
I take action like crazy, like I really work hard to just take massive action and it's what got me where I am today – Chris Garbacz
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Chris about the challenge or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.
Premium Membership + SEO Bundle – 2 Week Special!
- Learn how to best use your limited time, prioritise your SEO tasks, have your site ranking well without being a blogging machine.
- Easy to follow step by step, bite size video tutorials where Gabriel teaches by showing you exactly what to do as he does it. See his monitor as he makes changes and tweaks to real websites.
- Learn the theory behind SEO to understand exactly what Google is looking for in 2016 with your website and prioritise your tasks no matter how little time you have to work on your site.
- Learn how to analyse your competition to find why they are ranking well and what needs to happen for you to outrank them.
- Get into the backend of your website and learn which changes you need to make for your site ranking well and being seen by your prospective clients.
- Follow the course checklists and steps to rank well in your studio (or home) location or the location you want to be attracting clients from.
- What you need to avoid doing to prevent being penalised and how to obtain epic links to boost your rankings.
- Learn how to become the online AUTHORITY in your local area for your genre of photography.
The SEO Cookbook is a 60-page PDF that teaches photographers everything they need to know about search engines and how to rank well in search. The book is organized into simple recipes, each taking anywhere from 15 minutes to 4 hours.
The recipes allow you to focus on a specific part of your website a little bit at a time. For example, you can optimize your homepage one day, images another day, then a blog post, then learn how to get featured on another website.
With the SEO Cookbook, you can move forward at your own pace. It covers how Google works and how to exploit its ranking factors. It gives you step-by-step instructions for improving every page of your website so searchers can find you.
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Spencer's example blog posts for the challenge
The blog challenge put out by Spencer Lum in the last episode has well and truly kicked off and a bunch of premium members have jumped at the challenge of posting once per day!
It's not too late to get started – in fact, there's no time limit but you have to start sometime – it may as well be today.
What has been surprising is hearing from listeners taking the challenge, just how much more aware they are of what's happening in their day to day life and the ease in which they have been able to tie those observations back to their photography and more importantly, their prospective clients and their brand.
I love what Kristin Mitchell said inside the members Facebook group…
I've been really inspired by this project. I was out to lunch with a good friend of mine (also a wedding photographer) in Glasgow today. We sat outside because it's been hot and sunny here for 3 weeks (unheard of!). And I read some of your blog posts to her from my phone because I was so inspired by this project. I can't imagine a scenario where I would go to lunch with a friend and read other photographers blog posts to them! – Kristin Mitchell of Struve Photography
And here are a couple of examples from members:
Amanda Perris of Furry Hearts Photography – Embodied Love
Grant Kennedy of Grant K Images – I'll Be Fine
Barry Forshaw of Barry Forshaw Photography – Newcastle Engagement Photography
If you're putting yourself to the test, please link to your posts in the comments are below, I'd love to check them out and I know other listeners will too.
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.
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.
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Epic Photography by Chris Garbacz
The Smart Passive Income Podcast by Pat Flynn
Episode 076: Hamish Symington, Studio Management Software Solutions for Photography Business
Episode 154: Bryan Caporicci – Is Sprout Studio the All In One Photography Management Software?
Thank you!
Thanks again for listening to the show and thanks to Chris for coming on and being totally open about what he's doing in his business to achieve the success he is.
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
Thank you Chris. So many take aways from your interview : be on every fronts, SEO motivation…
I’m taking action now 🙂
A very interesting interview – thank you, Andrew and Chris! I flip-flop between having prices on my website vs “price starting at” vs not having any pricing indication at all.
At the time of the interview, I think Chris indicated he places pricing on the website but I can’t actually find pricing If Chris took pricing off recently, was there a specific reason or two for doing so? He is much more experienced & business savvy so I’m hoping for some guidance here, if possible. Cheers, Ernst
Hey Ernst – I often hear arguments for both – prices on or off your website. A lot of photographers have a “starting at” price too.
There really are good arguments for both and it’s probably something you have to just make a decision on and develop your process around what you decide.
Having prices on display means you don’t get the unnecessary time wasting enquiries and those that cone through are legitimately interested in paying your prices.
Not having them means you’re looking to attract enquiries from clients drawn to your photography, not your pricing – which is what we all want. Chances are though, your prices might be too high for a lot of potential clients so you’ll be getting a lot of knock backs.
There are other arguments for both but I think these are a couple of the big reasons.
I’ve taken the middle ground with my site and prices and make them available by completing an email optin form which means my site visitors get easy access to my prices and I get to follow up automatically via an email autoresponder series. If someone replies to my automated emails, I take them out of the automation process and answer personally because I know they are genuinely interested.
I’ll let Chris know about your question though and let’s see if we can get his thoughts.
Hey Ernst,
Andrew nailed it on the head 🙂 I did have my prices up for a while so I wouldn’t “get the unnecessary time wasting enquiries and those that come through are legitimately interested in paying your prices.”
Now I’m being a little bit more aggressive, so whenever a bride emails me asking for prices, I’ll call her asap, tell her what my prices start at and keep her on the phone as long as possible getting excited about her wedding (which I genuinely am). The mission is to book a meeting from that call and then I’m on the home stretch to securing the booking.
So basically, if I’m too busy, I put my prices up. If I need more bookings, I take my prices down and call brides and work a little more aggressively. Simple.
Cheers
Chris @ Epic Photography & Studio Ninja
Awesome – thanks Chris!
It’s great that you were able to score this interview with Chris and get an inside view into the mind of the creator of Studio Ninja. His business and marketing knowledge could probably help a lot of professionals.
It was a pleasure to have someone like Chris on the show to reveal some pretty cool strategies I had never heard before, he’s a cluey bugger!
As an seo expert, I also thought about this offer. Your proposal is great.