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Chamira Young of www.chamirastudios.com and the www.prophotographerjourney.com podcast shares her portrait party strategy to get more photography bookings in this interview. Chamira has refined her strategy out of necessity after relocating to a new city and having to build “street cred” fast in a location where she was starting over from scratch.
In addition to her photography, Chamira is also a teacher with courses hosted at Tuts+ and Udemy as well as her site at Pro Photographer Journey where she hosts the popular podcast of the same name.
Her courses include training on Photoshop, business prep, setting up your wordpress hosting and site, email marketing, keeping clients happy, printing promotional material, utilising Capture One for Fashion Photographers plus others including something that initially caught my attention and became the catalyst for this interview – How To Host a Portrait Party.
In addition to her photography, teaching and podcasting, Chamira is an artist, graphic designer, illustrator, print and web designer with clients all over the world. She studied at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design and searching her name online, she seems to be everywhere!
Here’s some more of what we cover in this interview:
- Chamira’s primary source of photography income and other income streams
- What does a corporate photographer do?
- Chamira's journey into the world of corporate photography
- Why Chamira altered her business focus and started doing corporate photography
- Why photographing headshots is not as easy as you might initially think
- How to build a corporate photography business from the ground up
- How to book your first corporate clients
- How Chamira generates work by joining group meetings with the Chamber of Commerce in her local area
- What is a portrait party and how it can help grow your business?
- Who to invite when hosting a portrait party
- Portrait party pricing and what comes with it
- Digital files are the valuable asset when when shooting corporate photography
- Utilizing co-working spaces to hold photography events
- People take you more seriously when you’re working from a professional space
- Why you need to limit hosting portrait parties
- The simple lighting setup for Chamira’s portrait parties
- Using Sprout Studio for the back end part of the business
- How to gain credibility as a business corporate photographer
- How to get your name out there
- Different avenues to explore for your portrait parties
- How Chamira finds clients and how they notice and find her
- How Chamira structures her pricing
- Why Chamira thinks feels her pricing is too cheap
- How to deal with joining groups as an introvert when your business success depends on it
- Dealing with the fear of joining social gatherings as the new photographer in town
- What to expect when attending social meetings as a corporate photographer
- Why you need to stop feeling self conscious during meetings and networking events
- How long should you wait to host portrait parties when initially joining networking groups?
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 interview – the full length and more revealing version where you hear the absolute best tips and advice from every guest.
I believe if there's something different in the way that you look or act, that can totally be beneficial for your business because that makes you more memorable – Chamira Young
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 Chamira, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.
Plus special member-only interviews.
You'll also receive access to the members only Secret Facebook Group where you can connect with other Premium Members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take ideas you hear in each episode and put them into action. There are also FB live video tutorials, role play interviews and special live interviews happening in the group.
You will not find more friendly, more motivated, caring and sharing photographers online.
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.
And that's not all… you get a set of steak knives… I'm kidding!
Seriously though, that's not all. In addition to everything above, you'll get access to and instructions on forming or joining a MasterMind Group with other premium members. These groups are super motivating, make you accountable and build friendships with other pro photographers with similar motives to you – to build a more successful photography business.
What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Chamira 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.
When you’re only taking a photo of someone’s head, you have to pay attention to every single detail – Chamira Young
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Chamira 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!
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.
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.
Develop your ability to self critique and build a photography portfolio that is truly you
If you're subscribed to email updates from day in the life photographer, Kate Densmore, you would have read she is cutting back on spreading herself so thin between social media, blogging, teaching, and shooting because she felt like a hopeless parent. The catalyst for this realisation, worry, change or whatever it really is, was a horribly large decay in one of her eldest daughters teeth. Something Kate missed and she puts that down to being too preoccupied with so many things going on in her life.
I think there is a little of what Kate was feeling in most of us if we're honest. Between marketing, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, marketing, networking, shooting, editing, client consults, learning…. there seems to be little time for normal living.
Although Kate is drastically pulling back, she feels passionate and excited about her class hosted at http://www.illuminateclasses.com/classes#/elements-of-self-critique/ – ELEMENTS OF SELF-CRITIQUE: Developing tools for empowered growth.
After interviewing Kate, reading her book, Stories of Home: The Art of Photographing Family and seeing her work, I can clearly see why this is a class she is 100% qualified to teach. Kate is a living example of what she'll be covering in the course. If you see her work and read her words, you'll know here's a woman who shoots in a style she loves and who unashamedly owns “her look”… It's the reason she authored her book and her clients seek her out.
If you're struggling to find and express the real you in your photography, this course will be a great fit.
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Chamira Young's Pro Photographer Journey Podcast
Free Photography Business Bundle
Portrait Party Course $127 special price
BNI: Business Network International
Episode 154: Bryan Caporicci – Is Sprout Studio the All In One Photography Management Software?
Episode 028: Bryan Caporicci – Wedding Photography Marketing the Smart Way
ELEMENTS OF SELF-CRITIQUE: Developing tools for empowered growth
Stories of Home: The Art of Photographing Family by Kate Densmore
Episode 209: Kate Densmore – Day In The Life Photography Today
Chamira Young headshot photo by Levi Sim
ELEMENTS OF SELF-CRITIQUE: Developing tools for empowered growth – an online course by Kate Densmore
Stories of Home: The Art of Photographing Family by Kate Densmore
PhotoBizX episode 209: Kate Densmore – Day In The Life Photography Today
Thank you!
Thanks again for listening and thanks to Chamira for coming on and sharing so much about her thoughts, tactics and strategies on the business side of building a successful photography business.
You got to get out there outside of your comfort zone. It’s kinda where the magic happens as uncomfortable as it can be – Chamira Young
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
