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Maurice Jager of www.mauricejager.com is one of Europe’s premiere headshot photographers and Chief Marketing Officer at Peter Hurley's, Headshot Crew. Maurice unashamedly states in his bio… he takes the best photo people have ever had of themselves and is utilising LinkedIn as one of his primary sources of bookings. In this interview, Maurice shares in step by step detail, how he's capitalising on this little used social media platform by photographers to get noticed and booked by combining it with tactical emails.
A little background on Maurice; after a decade long career in marketing, he took up photography full-time. Thanks to Peter Hurley, he’s been given the opportunity to teach headshot and portrait photographers both online and in-person to build their portfolio and business. Today, he combines his work with Peter, teaching headshot photography and business plus shooting in the corporate world of Holland to live a life he's truly excited to be living.
Here’s some more of what we cover in this interview:
What’s on Offer for Premium Members
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I think networking either socially or in real life is all about creating connections. And a lot of people they just expect people to find them. That doesn’t work that way. You need to put yourself out there before people can actually find you – Maurice Jager
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Joining a Mastermind Group (encouraged by Andrew) has been incredibly valuable and fun, I look forward to connecting with my group members every week. Jina Zheng, Premium Member and Melbourne Children photographer.
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What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Maurice 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.
If your business is quiet, you might ask for a lot of money. Because if they book they might as well pay big and if they're not booking you anyway you might as well ask a lot – Maurice Jager
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Maurice or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them in the comments area 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!
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The real deal
In iTunes by Lincolnshire wedding photographer, Carl Spring of 166 Photography from UK on July 21, 2017
I've listened to many photo podcasts that talk about business etc., but most turn out to be guests simple promoting something or lack content, not PhotoBizX, which actually gives real, practical advice from every guest.
It is also worth the investment for premium members. I was dubious, based on previous experience, but within 7 days of my free trial, I signed up for the year of premium. The extra info is priceless and the Facebook group is full of great people who help each other to achieve.
Don't stand there, just get listening!
New online photography magazine – PHOTO Live
Enthusiast and experienced photographer Rob Jenkins has just launched a new online photography magazine for photographers on the platform Issuu. It's free and packed fill of interviews, articles and great photography.
You'll find it here: https://photobizx.com/photolive
The magazine is beautifully laid out, easy to read and I'm sure there is something for every photographer!
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Maurice Jager on Headshot Crew
Maurice Jager Subscriber/DISCOUNT page for PBX Listeners
Episode 145: Peter Hurley – How To Survive and Thrive as a Headshot Photographer
Photo Live – online photography magazine
Thank you!
Thanks again for listening and thanks to Maurice for coming on and sharing so much about his business, marketing ideas and strategies and thoughts on attracting clients to his headshot photography business.
I feel like photographers, they’re really good at taking pictures but they’re not really good at selling themselves – Maurice Jager
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
Really enjoyed the inspirational and giving of information. I have 2 questions. I have the opportunity to make my garbage my studio at the moment; however i’m about 45 minutes away from San Fransisco and a bit worried how i convince the busy business type to come to my garage studio.
Would you go to the office of the clients instead?
I did my first head shot just with natural light and I feel they came out just perfect, black background and Perter Hurley boards on the ground.
If I were to travel not sure what the set up would be https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4128a739f0c4f7f4dc3eac256e23d0f09c44562f11fd661c80394f45af72ddd6.jpg . Second question is what are you selling the additional downloads for?
Hi Steven,
Thank you for the compliment. Means a lot to me to learn that you enjoyed the interview. Let me dive straight into your questions:
1. The fact that you’re close to a major city is huge! That being said, if you want to take on bigger jobs, people usually want you to come there. Personally, people drive from wherever to my studio. I had a couple people who drove 3 hrs one-way to get their headshot taken by me. That doesn’t happen much though, so for me the consideration is this: if the person/people who need headshots earn more in an hour (combined) than I would in that hour, I take my show on the road. And they’re happy to pay the travel-fee, because they can be productive in that hour and make more working than traveling. If my travel-rate is higher than their hourly wage, they travel to me. I service top clients pretty much all over Europe and even fly with my setup if needed.
My travel setup is basically the same as my studio setup. I shoot with the Westcott Peter Hurley FlexKit on 3 Manfrotto 1051BAC stands, a Proboard + Manfrotto 1004BAC stands and I bring my Feisol CT3472-LV tripod and my tether table and I’m all set.. Everything fits in my Think Tank production manager 50 and that goes in the back of the car and it’s go-time! I can set up my studio in about 20 minutes.
I know of photographers who shoot corporate jobs with a bunch of speed lights and strip boxes and get killer results. It doesn’t really come down to gear as much as it comes down to how comfortable you are using it and sticking to your style as people expect you to deliver portfolio-worthy work regardless of the conditions you’re shooting in.
Thank you for getting back to me. For now I will have to use some portable foam core boards- natural light or a video light and PH boards- Q how do you charge for going to the business for 1 or 2 people? I know you said in the podcast that your rate is around $350 US
Maurice! This is awesome.Congrats on the interview! The headshot crew is an awesome resource too! All you photographers looking to get into headshots need to come join the crew .
Thank you Michael! Means a lot to me.. I’m glad you got something good out of the interview!
I really enjoyed the Linkedin ideas and the instagram ideas on reaching out to companies. I’m amazed by his number of followers on instagram. Not sure but lately when I post on instagram my numbers keep going down not up. Anyone have any idea why? You did mention about a backlink to my website. I’d love to connect with you at http://www.KarenVaismanPhotography.com Thanks for the great podcast!
Hey Karen – love that you enjoyed the interview with Maurice! I’ll let Maurice have a go at tackling your IG question but my guess is if you’re losing followers, they weren’t the kind of followers you really wanted anyway.
I know a lot of follows are only to have you follow back and they stop following you. Sad but true. This is also being done with apps and robots too.
The way to build your IG audience is to post regularly, use relevant hashtags, share quality images and use the captions area to full effect by sharing personal stories, anecdotes, behind the scene info, be genuine and think of these as mini blog posts.
I recorded an interview with Nadia Meli who grew her following fast by following these points. You can hear her interview here: https://photobizx.com/How+to+Discover+Your+Photography+Voice+and+Style+for+True+Success+Nadia+Meli
In regard to the backlink using your targeted keywords/anchor text – I give these out for any iTunes reviews I receive for the show. If you decide to leave an honest rating and review, let me know via email, the url and anchor text you’d like me to link to. You can easily leave a review here: https://photobizx.com/itunes.
Great to have you listening!
Hi Andrew! Thank you so much I just posted a detailed review on the podcast. I plan on listening to many more of your podcasts as I found the information quite valuable. I took notes and listened intently. I printed out your page too. I would be grateful for a link to my website http://www.karenVaismanPHotography.com. Keep up the great work!
Hi Karen – thanks for your review – I’ll be happy to add a link to your site.
I’ll add the link as soon as I see your review – it usually takes a week or so to show up in iTunes.
Thanks again and great to have you listening!
Speak soon
Andrew
thanks so much Andrew! how do I email you the keywords? Keywords would be “corporate headshots” “corporate portraits” “portrait studio” “portrait photographer” thank you so much! http://www.KarenVaismanPhotography.com I look forward to hearing more of your shows. Very informative!