I'm excited to welcome internationally awarded professional photographer, re-toucher and digital artist Antti Karppinen from Finland to the show. Although from Finland, Antti recently moved to the UK. In this interview, discover what it takes to achieve success as a photography business start up in a new country.
It's a question every guest is asked on the show – what would you do if moving to a new country, knowing what you do right now. It's one of the most revealing and helpful answers to listeners and today we have a real life example in Antti. His story of success will amaze and surprise you. The “ripple effect” of his chance meetings took him to heights you'd never expect.
He says on his website – I belong to a new generation of image artisans, to whom all things are possible. I create complex visual concepts and images with unlimited imagination. And it's that outlook and his skills that recently won Antti a bronze World Cup Medal in photography! It's that same outlook that gives him the confidence to go after what he wants in the photography world – the guy is a true inspiration and a sign of what any of us can achieve.
Here’s some of what we cover:
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 from where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for that 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 Mark Condon, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your podcast app.
What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview, I’d love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you’d like to implement or learnt from what was shared? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.
When there's an element of touch involved on printed paper, it leaves a mark on people's brains – Antti Karpinen
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Antti 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 your website URL just like I have with “Adam Joe” below.
Over 100 Separate Workshops
Not an iTunes shootout today but one I want to make anyway – and it kind of fits because we talked so much about Instagram last week.
This one goes out to Adam Joe of Adam Joe Roberts Photography in the UK. Adam is a wedding and portrait photographer who left a comment on one of my IG photos that made my morning! He says:
Catching up with the premium podcasts slowly while working.
Episode 117 with Anna Pumer was easily the best yet. Thank you for allowing me and others to attend 117 (and counting) separate photography workshops for a measly $20 per month.
It's like we are taking advantage of you every week!
Adam, thanks mate – what you've said about the podcast is the exact dream I had when starting the show over two years ago. My plan was to deliver a workshop every single week that was worth paying for and concentrated on the business of photography for wedding and portrait photographers. So reading your comment drives home the fact I'm actually achieving what I started out to do. Again, thanks.
Sales Without Shame – Photography Sales Course by Kristen Kalp
Kristen Kalp was our guest a few weeks ago and I shared details about her Sales Without Shame course. After hearing about her strategy to use printed proofs for the sales session (part of the course) I promised to give it a try and have since ordered three lots of proofs and we've completed two sales session using Kristen's strategies – more about them in last weeks episode but the signs are very positive!
Since the interview, I downloaded Kristen's course and there is so much more to it than printed proofs! It's a complete strategy for portrait sales including:
- Products to sell and show
- Overcoming and dealing with rejection or resistance to your prices
- Questions you need to be asking during the session to give your client what they actually want
- How to move quickly and completely through the session
- How to deal with discount hunters
- How not to give everything away
- Using incentives to make the sale happen and actually get paid
- What to do when the decision maker isn't at the session
In addition to the tactics you'll find cheat sheets and forms to use during your sales sessions with everything laid out in order so you don't miss a step.
I've since passed the course onto Linda to follow for this weeks sales sessions. Usually it would be Tenneille but she is heading off on holidays for 6 weeks!
I was also pretty excited to see a complete module for wedding photography too! Topics include selling albums to disc only wedding bookings, selling extra pages to client who have ordered an album and doing it all easily and without fuss.
Honestly, if you're someone who struggles with sales and selling, you give too much away, feel intimidated by some clients or don't feel you're worth what you need to (and want to) charge, have a look at Kristen's course and make use of the $200 saving for the next 3 weeks only.
Here's the link again: Sales Without Shame
Feedback is starting to come in from listeners now using Kristen's course like this from Deb Smith in Australia.
I have only just started reading the Sales Without Shame course but I've already used a portion of it on one voucher client whose shoot is coming up soon – Deb Smith
I think the real beauty of the course is the easy to follow nature and the just as easy to implement nature of the course. It's all there and laid out in simple steps and Kristen does a fantastic job of answering any questions that seem to pop into your head while working through the material.
As mentioned in last weeks episode, if you do have any questions while completing the course, Kristen is right there for you at brandcamponline@gmail.com.
The Photographers SEO Course is Available This Week!
After months of work and planning and recording, the Photographers SEO Course will be available next week! This is the course I asked Gabriel Machuret to create for PhotoBizX listeners after engaging him to help me with my new website.
I've been looking at the course outline and the content is amazing. What I love most from what I've seen is the videos, over 30 of them are so easy to follow as Gabriel walks us through the exact steps on a real website as he makes changes and optimises the site.
If you want to see your website rise higher through the search engines, know what to prioritise with SEO tasks and not have to be a blogging machine (no photographer I know has time for that, I know I don't), this course will suit you perfectly.
Keep an eye out for an email this week with links to the pre-launch videos to get a better idea of exactly what's included or you can save the URL – learnphotographyseo.com
Oh, and the course will only be available for 3 days at a super special price, then 7 more days before it's taken down. Gabriel will explain why in the videos but there's a great reason… something about one on one support for 3 months!
The other BIG news about the SEO course is every purchaser of the course will be getting a 20 minute website appraisal by Gabriel! ( I said 10 minutes in the podcast but Gabriel went and added another 10 minutes after recording!) He'll be going over your site and making SEO recommendations so you know exactly where to get started. That is incredible and that appraisal alone is worth more than the cost of the course.
In regard to costs, I've been getting plenty of emails asking. Well, you'll be happy to know the cost is an amazingly low $127! Here's the catch though… That price is only available for 3 days after the launch. After 3 days, the price is going to $199 for 7 days before the course is taken down.
There's a very good reason for the short sales period (think bonus for course attendees) and we need to have numbers finalised to kick things off.
If you want to know more, the 3 pre launch videos are now live and you can see them here: learnphotographyseo.com. The course will be available in a couple days.
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Antti Karppinen Photography on Facebook
Antti's Conceptual Wedding Photography blog
Antti's Steampunk friends for life blog
Olympic Silver Medalist Jamie Baulch
Equipment
Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
Thank you!
Thank you again for listening to the show and thanks to Antti for being a fantastic and thought provoking guest!
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 looking forward to this one, for obvious reasons! 🙂
So, managed to listen to it. Awesome job again! And happy to hear my name dropped so much. 🙂 I may have a beard, but I’m not a hipster!
Haha, thanks Rahim, so good to hear you enjoyed the interview after making the great recommendation… Even if you do sport a hipster beard! 🙂
Interesting interview Andrew- I love hearing about a photographer trying to build some business after moving to a new location; I feel like I can relate in that I am fairly new to the business and am trying to do essentially the same thing (minus the moving to a new place part).
Also, the SEO course comes at a perfect time for me- I am completely clueless in this area and need as much help as I can get. The extra perk of the 20 minutes of website appraisal is seriously nice touch considering it’s custom tailored to each photographer’s site.I’m looking forward to it!
Hi AJ – Antti definitely made for a great guest with a terrific story.
Do you have the personality to talk to strangers like Antti does? I know that’s something I’d struggle with but can see a printed portfolio would make it a little easier.
Hope you’re enjoying the SEO course too – I’ll see you in the Facebook group!
Great interview Andrew, Antti, very brave move you did there. I love how you network, so not me though! I like the post work you showed on the Steam punk shoot, it is a little to fast to see exactly what you were doing but cool none the less. Makes me want to get off my butt and to some personal shooting. Thanks for sharing.
Jerry
Thanks Jerry and I’m a little on your side of the fence in regard to networking Antti style.
It may be different if I were in Antti’s situation – new country, no work etc but I’d really have to push myself.
Love that you checked some of Antti’s work – how good is it!
Great interview, I listened yesterday driving in the morning and again in the evening.
I love the outlook of being open to meeting anyone (beard or no beard) as you never know where that relationship may lead to or what experiences you might have.
Many times I’ve let myself just go in a direction without too many expectations, or without a firm end goal and good things have come from it, I thought that story was fantastic !
Thank you Rahim for sharing that one.
Printed albums to showcase your work, didn’t Linda have some success doing something similar the other week ?
Purple Port, is there an equivalent for Sydney (besides the facebook groups) ?
Very enjoyable podcast
Hi,
There is another modeling site like PurplePort, which is ModelMayhem. Check it out. 🙂
thank you Rahim, I’ve had a browse this morning and looks promising for the Sydney area. I’ll look further into it.
cheers 🙂
O
Thanks Rahim and thanks again for recommending Antti for an interview!
Thanks Orlando – glad you enjoyed this one as much as I did! Love the addition of beard or no beard comment too. 🙂
YES, exactly! Linda has been doing great using printed proofs following Kristen Kalp’s sales advice. You know, it’s so good seeing piles of printed photos in the studio again – it’s something I haven’t seen for years and clients are liking it to.
I think Rahim already mentioned Model Mayhem as an option to Purple Port. Another and the best site I’ve found in Australia is StarNow – it’s the site I’ve been using to find models when required and the response has been terrific.
Hi Andrew,
so much great information on your websites its tough just keeping up with your knowledge sharing!
I’ve had a look at StarNow off and on but without membership I guess you only get to see very little of what goes on. I was that close to spending some time setting up a profile on MM.
Setting up profiles well takes quite a bit of time and commitment.
That new printing idea just might catch on one day 😉
thank you AH !
Hey Orlando
I use Star Now with the FREE plan and it works fine – never had any trouble booking models.
Don’t spend too much time on your profile till you try it out. Have a search for mine if you want to see what I did but it’s not a real lot.
Haha, that printing thing just might 🙂
cheers, I’ll check it out later in the week 🙂
I really enjoyed Annti’s approach to building his networks and business in Cardiff. Definitely love the idea of a printed portfolio. I’m sure the fantastic work you do helps make a big impression too but the leather portfolio must show that you are serious about this business. Everyone has photos on their phones and tablets ….not many carry a proper portfolio.
Thanks for adding your comments Te.
Agreed too, how impressive would it be to have a printed portfolio handed to you rather than a phone or tablet.
It’d be impossible to flick through as fast and not take in each image.
Have you started working on yours? 😉
Thanks for this interview Andrew! I really enjoyed Annti’s openness to putting himself out there and opening himself up to opportunities which paid out in the end. I have found every time I take something on that is a bit out of my realm / comfort zone or voluntarily that it always seems to return to me in positive ways. I just recently booked a wedding from a client who couldn’t chose her wedding photographer and she ended up choosing me due to images she had seen from a free shoot I did to help a friend raise funds for cancer. I also agree with the tangible aspect of placing portfolios in a client’s had rather than a laptop. Enjoying the SEO course btw 🙂
Hi Dawn – so good to read about the way you got your recent wedding booking, that’s so cool!
I’m with you on the whole comfort zone thing. It’s a little scary going there but mostly very rewarding once you have. I have to remind myself of exactly that when considering new things.
Sounds like you have a printed portfolio too? That’s terrific, I don’t know many photographers that do these days but can definitely see the benefits after listening to Antti.
Love that you’re enjoying the SEO course too! See you in the Facebook group. 🙂