524: Alex Cearns – Photography business rules for success and profit

524: Alex Cearns - Photography business rules for success and profit

Andrew Hellmich: When I introduced today's guest for episode 290 of the podcast, I told you she was described as one of our greatest dog photographers in the world, and that was by Dogs Today Magazine in the UK. Take a look at her CV, and it's difficult to know what to share without scaring you off and making you feel like a total underachiever. What I think you need to know off the bat, is that she is super successful in business. Is still shooting and working as a photographer, and has been in business for 15 years. She's accumulated over 350 awards for her photography, and she represents companies including Tamron Pro Photo, SanDisk, Ilford and Spider Camera Holsters. She's a published author multiple times by a real publisher, Harper Collins, and she's also a keynote speaker and professional photography tour leader for global travel company, World Expeditions. All this to say she is bloody amazing and has a ton to share about running a successful photography business. I'm talking about pet photographer extraordinaire, Alex Cairns, and I am rapt to have her with us again today. Alex, welcome.

Alex Cearns: Thanks, Andrew, that that person sounds amazing. It's hard to sometimes, you know, link that to yourself when someone's saying all those kind things. But thank you for that intro, and congrats on 290 that's an amazing achievement. Blows all mine out the water.

Andrew Hellmich: Well, your actual interview, when I've interviewed you last time was 290, this one is going to be 520 or something odd. So we are, we are well past 290.

Alex Cearns: Wow. That's amazing. So that's great. Thanks for 290 and for 500.

Andrew Hellmich: So when I do read that intro and you hear it, I mean, do you wonder where you get time in the day to do the things that you do, or is it a well thought out plan, and is it a structured calendar that lets you do what you do?

Alex Cearns: Actually, that's probably the question I get asked the most. People are like, "How do you fit all this stuff in?" And I would love to talk to you today about my business rules, and one of them is actually compartmentalizing time. So I use a calendar extensively, and I factor in everything so personal time to do lists of things that I have to remember, and then work time as well. So, you know, I think it's a really good idea if people are in business or starting a business, to make sure they know which days they dedicate to which tasks. So I know that Sunday is a family day for me. I have a day off. And, you know, I might have an office day on a Monday and Tuesday, I coach on certain days. I shoot on certain days, and, you know, have editing days, purchase appointment days, and it's all very compartmentalized. So what it enables me to do is not only do a lot of things because they're planned and structured, but also, while I'm coaching, I'm not thinking, "Oh, I need to be doing some editing for a photo shoot this afternoon, or got a duck to a shoot if this call goes over", it means I can commit fully to the tasks I'm doing at the time, because there's actual specific time slots dedicated to them. So I think it's a great question. You know, we all have the same amount of hours in a day, but we all use them differently. And don't get me wrong, I love sleep. I can sleep for 12 hours if I had the opportunity. So you know, I'm not always going a million miles an hour, and I'm not a workaholic either. I love, you know, going up my friends and my partner and having downtime and having a life as well. So, you know, it's that kind of thing, you know, work to live, don't live to work kind of thing. Hope I got the right way. So, yeah, just really being structured and being specific in everything I do and documenting those time chunks effectively. So every day, I know you know what I have to do and factoring in time off downtime. You know, if you want to get fit and you think you don't have enough time, well, we can all get up half an hour earlier. You know it's all about choice and weighing up what's most important to us in that moment, to allocate time to it as well.

Andrew Hellmich: So how flexible or inflexible are you with your calendar or your time chunking. So for example, if you get a client contact you for a photo session and they say, "Listen, I can't shoot on Tuesdays and Thursdays when you have availability, I can only shoot on Friday", and that's your editing day. What do you do?

Alex Cearns: So at the moment, I coach Monday to Friday, generally, four out of those five days, depending on how many clients I've got running at any one time. And Wednesday may be my editing day for photo shoots. There won't be any coaching, say, on that day. If that's the day of the week that I use for that, I shoot only on Saturdays. So I shoot every hour on the hour, so I shoot in a studio, so it enables me to run clients through very quickly. And I've just developed a system with the animals where fast is best for me. So it means by the time the dogs come in, if it's a dog I'm photographing, by the time I'm, you know, done, they're literally just arriving and, you know, they're in the car and they're heading back home again, I can shoot 300 photos in a really short period of time, and as long as those clients arrive on time, that day rolls out really easily. I can do five to eight shoots on a Saturday, edit all those sessions on the Wednesday, roll out my purchase appointments. The shoots and purchase appointments take about half an hour each, so I'm probably investing about 10 to 12 hours a week in that part of the business. And if a client can't make a Saturday shoot, we can push them to a different Saturday, either add them to the morning or the afternoon. So that's normally not too bad, because Saturdays are generally pretty good for most people with their work commitments and things like that. If it's a special request where they just they work Saturdays and they cannot do it, I can put them into that Wednesday afternoon if I need to. So I have a bit of flexibility with that. With coaching clients kind of similar, but a lot of my clients are overseas, so time differences play a part. You know, in the States, it's either early morning for me, their previous evening, or vice versa. So sometimes, if, you know, already got calls every morning, someone needs to shift one, we might have to, you know, rejig a few things, but normally have a bit of space in there. I mean, coaching wise, I might do one to two calls a day, that could be minimum of four hours, a max of six, and pretty much done for the day. Might do some office stuff if I need to for an hour or two, but that's pretty much it. So it's taken me a long time to get to that point where now I have that, that freedom to be able to, kind of, you know, not have to work 100 hours a week anymore, probably doing about 30-35, hours a week in both, both businesses combined, yet effectively working two full time jobs by doing that.

Andrew Hellmich: So good, so good. How much client education is happening before your clients come in for that Saturday session. Because, I mean, it sounds to me like, you know, I've talked about how successful your business is, but if a client's just turning up on Saturday, I'm guessing they don't feel rushed, even though it does sound very quick, and then they have a purchasing appointment. Like, it sounds like a bit of a conveyor belt. You know, conveyor line is that the way it is?

Alex Cearns: No and that's really good point. The key to everything is communication. So I literally have the client with me probably for half an hour and 15 minutes of that is shooting time. But the way I shoot it's very intense. I'm very close to the subject, so the dog is focusing really intently on me the whole time, and it's like a training session. So if you're at home training your dog, you'd probably hold a treat up in front of their face, maybe for five minutes before they start getting bored or tired. I do that for 15 so those dogs are pretty mentally exhausted at the end, because that whole time, if you think about someone waving a block of your favorite chocolate in front of your face, right in front of your face, inches away, for 15 minutes, you know, firstly, you want to throat punch them. Secondly, you're watching a block. You're exhausted from the mental anguish of, you know, getting some of that chocolate they're not and looking and focusing. So it's kind of like that with toys and treats. So I explain that to clients, I say, "Look, I work super-fast because I believe it's in your dog's best interest. It helps me maintain focus for that whole time, I'll shoot a lot of images, and from those 300 photos, I might pick you the best 30". Their purchase appointments, another normally the Wednesday the following week, the same day that I do the editing and I do online purchase appointments. So I'm guiding them through the process, but I'm online, which, to be honest, I realized, you know, thanks to COVID, is no different to someone sitting next to me and looking at my computer screen. Instead, they're at home looking at the screen, and I'm at home looking at the screen. But education is key too. So I have very comprehensive system that I can run people through, very comprehensive email communication about what to expect. And you know, at the end of the shoot, I discuss with them options. I talk about the products that are available. And you know, the last thing they see or hear at that studio before they leave is the first thing they remember when we call in for the purchase appointment. You know, just plants the seeds of what they want. So even if people are doing pre session consults at the start, that photo shoot might be two months later, and people have forgotten, you still have to do something at the end of that shoot, whether you're in a studio or outside, have some products show them what you've got what's available, and not in a sales manner, in an educational helping someone make choices manner. Hey, we're going to do a purchase appointment. And here's the options. I'm going to show you what they are, and I just point canvas, framed, metal print, whatever it is, and then off you go. I'll see you next week on online. And then, you know, I send them further information too about that appointment. You know, I do a sneak peek preview picture on Facebook for them, get them excited. And also, to be honest, that's kind of free advertising for me to say, "Look what I did. I took a photo of a Rottweiler", and book some other Rottweiler jobs, if I'm lucky. And so, yeah, so as long as you explain to them what is happening and the reason for working that fast, they don't feel like they're being ripped off time wise. And I have some clients drive, you know, eight hour round trip to come for a half an hour shoot.

Andrew Hellmich: Wow

Alex Cearns: And not a single person ever said, "Oh, that was bit quick, and not what I paid for or what I expected", because everything is expressed clearly before that, "Your shoot will take about this long. This is how we work and why." And I reiterate that when they get there. And aside to that, that people who do work in a studio might be keen to hear, a lot of people say to me, "Oh, how do you stop dogs from peeing everywhere in your studio?" And it's kind of the same thing when they come in. I say to the clients, "Can you please go and stand near those chairs?" The chairs are not near anything. It's just a IKEA set of chairs sitting there, like kind of wooden chairs. And I said, "Please keep your dog on their leash." Because what that does is it means they focus on me walking around the room and getting everything ready, and the dog starts to learn, "Oh, this is, this lady's house, kind of small, weird house with some lights and treats and things, but, you know, quite smells a bit like a vet clinic." And they're starting their leash. If you let them off the leash, they're running around. They're sniffing. They're not paying attention they're peeing, and they're ignoring me, and then suddenly they're like, you know, "Who's the stranger? What's going on?" So just again, instead of saying, "Please keep your dog on leash. They don't pee everywhere." That would probably annoy an owner. It's "Pleased to stand here because then your dog's with you. They're paying attention to me and they're watching what I'm doing. If we let them off, they just do their own thing," and it has a self-serving purpose for me as well, in that they're not peeing everywhere. Just communication, communicate, give them the reason why. And, you know, people are happy. I need to get my families to start bringing their kids in on leashes and do the same thing. I have, I have a saying on the wall, and kids kick off on it, but it says "Dogs can go free. Children must remain on leash." And kids always go, "Hey, that's not", sit there and play with your iPad, thanks.

Andrew Hellmich: You said purchasing appointment there, was that for the benefit of me and listeners. Or do you actually call it a purchasing appointment to your clients?

Alex Cearns: Yeah, I call it a purchase appointment. I came unstuck once years ago when I used to call it a viewing session, and a client turned up, and he sat down, and I gave him the price list and said, "Here's the prices." And he said, "Why would I need those?" And I said, "Because you choose, you know, you buy the photos." And he said, "I thought I was just looking at them. It's a viewing." And I don't, you know, I call it what it is. It's not a sales session. Because to me, that word 'sales' has a bit of a connotation, and it feels a bit icky. It's someone making a free choice purchase. You know, they get to choose. It's not an investment session. This is, they're not buying a house, you know, I wish they'd spend that money, but, you know, they're not, they're not buying something too that probably has a lifespan beyond their generation. You know, like their kids may keep those photos if their parents pass. But are their kids, they're going to be like, "Whose animals are these from 2023?", no one's going to say that in 2050 you know, they're going to be like. "We don't want those." They don't have a value that appreciates to anyone other than that pet owner or that family. And I don't call it a reveal. I used to be in the police force. It might be a bit of a police thing, I don't know. I just feel like I might have dealt with too many people that did this. But I feel like that implies someone with a dressing gown, flashing everyone and going, "No", I don't know why I think that, but that's where my mind goes when I hear 'reveal' that I don't want to participate in your reveal. Thank you very much. So yeah, call it purchase appointment. I call it what it is, and then it's very clear language for client. Again, communication is key. Clear language for clients. They understand that they get to come and make a purchase.

Andrew Hellmich: I love it, so good. Now you are so organized. And when we set up this interview, when I asked you to come back on the show, you said, "Oh, look, I've got some ideas that we could cover for people that are in business, things that I've learned along the 15 years of my journey", and which is incredible. I'm going to dive into those with you in just a second, because you sent them to me as well, and I think they're amazing. Just quickly, before we get into that list, you said that you shoot, I think, 250, 300 frames in a 15 to 30 minute session with a dog. Is that with flash or using consistent light?

Alex Cearns: No, I'm using strobes. And you know, sometimes the dogs obviously have a reaction to the light. To be honest, it's normally the sound, the pop sound, that the lights make. I use, obviously mentioned at start, Pro Photo Lighting, and in my opinion, they're the best you can get. They're actually quieter than the previous brand of lights I used to use, which was just an added bonus when I switched to them. But you know, I don't spend two hours letting the dog get used to the space and the lights. I find that, you know, just through, I guess, knowing about animal behavior, I can pretty much have them in there within five minutes they're having photos, and sometimes there might be two dogs, and one's a bit nervous, so I photograph the non-nervous one first, but I have the nervous one with the owner sitting next to me on leash, so they're watching, kind of sitting near the light, right next to me. The light's kind of behind my head, pointing at the subject. And you'd be amazed at how watching someone else get treats and attention gets you over your fear of that light pretty quick. You know, they're beginning to get up there because they're like, "What about me? I didn't just come to watch. I don't care about the light now." So I use like, tactics like that. If I have a single dog that's a bit terrified, I'll sometimes put them up there on leash. And to be honest, they're just sitting on a couch. It's a little ottoman, you know, it's a one square meter area that I pretty much shoot in. And I'm like, so I say to the owner, look, even if they're jumping around, they don't like this for a minute. I'm going to flash a lot of times to try and desensitize them, see if they'll take a treat, play with a toy. You know, usually one of those things will work. And again, I said they're not going to die. They're just going to be sitting on a couch for literally 10 minutes while I get some shots. So nine times out of 10, that dog will suddenly stop jumping and trying to get off and realize nothing's happening. "Oh, this is actually fun." And, you know, sometimes it takes them a bit longer, but even in those split seconds on their leash, you know they're smart, they know they're restrained. So they know they can't just fly off the ottoman. They'll, you know, look at me and give me what I need, enough to show the owners those photos. I'm very aware too. Dogs, some dogs have a one incident memory. So if you have a puppy and you drop a saucepan on the floor and scare it, it will always probably be scared of loud noises. You know, there's one thing can trigger that response for the rest of their lives. I try not to do anything like that with these lights. But normally, if the dog is quite neurotic and terrified, that's who that dog is in real life. You know, they terrified of even strangers or being in the car, so you can only photograph what you've got in front of you as well. It's like if a client says to me, or they say to their dog, "Oh, Max, I wish you'd smile, show your teeth, and the owner is really saying to me, "Please get some open mouth shots." Well, if the dog hasn't got its mouth open, I can't do that, you know. And I then say to them, "Look, Max isn't smiling. But I don't think Max is a particularly puffy panty dog anyway, and he would, is it even him if his mouth's open?", and they're like, "No, you're right, he normally has his mouth closed. He's normally even if he runs around the park, he never puffs and shows his teeth", so you know, some people come in and will say, "Can you get me a high five shot?" And I'll say, "Sure, does your dog do high five?" And they'll say, "Oh, no.", you know. Toot my own horn, Andrew, I'm good, but I'm not a magician, you know, I'm like unless they can do it, you can only photograph what you've got. So if you're getting a dog that looks quite serious, or a dog that's a bit, you know, looks a bit wide eyed, that's them in their real life, anyway, nine times out of 10.

Andrew Hellmich: For sure.

Alex Cearns: Yeah

Andrew Hellmich: Well, you said that it's often the popping noise of the flash that's triggering the dog. Why aren't you shooting on a wider aperture or a higher ISO so you don't get that popping sound

Alex Cearns: Even at the like the lower kind of level of the lights, there is still a sound, and that can even be enough. It's pretty muted. Sometimes, what I'll do is start the lights at the lowest setting, sit the dog in front of them, give them a treat and flash at the same time, then slowly increase the light power so the sound increases. I, you know, generally shoot on F/13 to try and get their face pretty sharp. My lights are powered up pretty high. I think the lights are used so if they go to an output of 10, they're on about between 8.5 and nine. And because I predominantly shoot on a black background. I do need to throw a lot of light on those dogs, so I generally try to just keep you know my settings that ISO 100, and 1 turn of a second for the flash synced to the lights, but yeah, even the variation in noise from the lights, even if I do power them down, if they're scared of it at all, they'll be scared of it even when it's low. They're the sort of dogs that are quite neurotic, like they, like I said, literally, they can't cope with even a stranger coming to the house, kind of thing. They'll be scared of go for a walk. They're scared of a cement mixer, a motorbike, a person drilling in the shed, you know, as they go past, kind of thing. So thunder and lightning reactive to all that sort of stuff as well. Yeah, it's not actually the light strobing and any animals actually, ironically, other than dogs, and I won't talk about cats, because they're all different cats. Cats are cats. Dogs come in and think it's the best fun they've ever had. Cats come in, you know, dogs love me. Think that favorite friend, you know, great day. Cats hate me. Hate their owners, hate their life in that moment, been woken up, dragged out from under the bed, taken to this strange place. They think it's silly. You know, it's not what cats should be doing. They have all these, these cat rules that they've broken. Every other animal, it could be an insect to a native animal, to a bird. I think they just see that light as a big, bright sun, and sometimes it just gets brighter. And their comprehension, you know, is maybe they like a chicken, maybe it knows it's inside with the sun, whereas a dog knows there's a stranger, there's a noise, there's a pop sound, there's some treats. Why is my owner here? Who's this person? There's a smell. You know, they're very, very aware of everything. If you even have someone in the back room scratch their nose, that dog can react to it if they don't like people moving around and stuff. Whereas a chicken is just like indoors and sunny. These have different comprehension of their environment and wildlife. The same reptiles. They don't really react to it at all, you know, to the lights at all. They're pretty easy.

Andrew Hellmich: So good. Let's jump into your list here. Because, I mean, this is really the crux of the business side of things that you shared with me that and I agree, you know, should and can change the way people do business. The first thing on your list is "Be client focused", and then you've got "The client is always right, even if they're not." Do you really believe that?

Alex Cearns: Yeah, I do, and not that I, you know, nine times out of 10, not that I always agree or subscribe to it. Because every now and then we have a day where we're like, not today, but you know, in those 15 years of business, and I think I've shot, photographed 15,000 animals through the studio, and probably between seven and a half thousand and 8,000 client sales sessions, I've never had a bad review. Because if I ever have a question about business or what a client thinks, I try to put myself in their shoes, as if I was that client. So say, a client spends $3,000 they buy some canvases and some prints, they pick them up, and then they phone me and say, "Sorry, one of the canvases is wrong." First thing I do is see if it's my fault. I always try and take ownership. Am I responsible for this situation? So I'll go and look up the image numbers, look up what I ordered. Make sure there's no mistake. "No, that's what you ordered." "No, we ordered the high five shot." "No, I think you're going to get that, but you decided on the laying down shot." "No, we wanted the high five shot." Now I know that that's what they came to that appointment thinking they wanted, but then they changed their mind. But they're not trying to scam me out of a free product. They genuinely believe that what they order is different. Now think about that in relation to our own lives. If I ordered a pair of jeans from the store and I thought I ticked blue, and they turned up brown, and I took them back in there and said, "These are wrong." And they said, "No, they're not." And I'm like, "No, they are." I didn't want brown, blue, and they just argued with me. Every time I wore those pants. I'm going to be pissed. You know, people "I like your pants", "Yeah, but they should be blue." They just said I was wrong. You know, in the case of the client with the canvas, "You know what I'm going to order, you the high five canvas." A high five canvas probably cost me $100, you know. And you know, this is actually real life scenario. The client said, "Why would you do that?" And I said, "Because you're not happy". If she'd put the canvases I'd ordered for her that we're correct on the wall. Every time someone walked in and said, "Wow, what amazing photos of your dog", she would have said, "Yeah, but they're wrong. And she wouldn't listen to me. I told her, we didn't want that one. We wanted this high five shot that we haven't got." I do not want to be some clients life story every time someone for the next 15 years they're going on, but to people instead, just send them the reprint, $100 job done, you know. And now that's on the wall. And every time someone walks in now and says, "Wow, they're amazing", that story is forgotten. "Oh, my God, Alex is incredible. She's the best. Look how beautiful that high five is. That's our favorite." You know, if people aren't trying to scam you out of free stuff, which sometimes, you know, these clients aren't doing that. I've only ever had to do that a few times, but I just try and think of it. Imagine thinking you were right, and the business is just telling you you're wrong because you don't know you're wrong. You know it would infuriate you. Even though you're wrong, you don't know.

Andrew Hellmich: Absolutely, you would be cranky for the rest of your life. You'd never recommend that person. You talk ill about them. You just it would just eat at you. So with that client, do you, or any future client or past client, do you try and get the wrong canvas back, or just say, keep it?

Alex Cearns: In that case, I just said, "You know what? You can keep it." She actually wanted, she ordered two, and she wanted a set of three. So she was able to put the portrait high five shot in the center, and she had a set of three. Sometimes I might swap it out if I want to use it as a sample. But generally, you know, also, if people get a bonus product, it's like, if I actually do make a mistake, which sometimes I do, they get, "Oh, I ordered you an acrylic block instead of a five by seven inch gift print. Well, guess what? You got free acrylic block upgrade", and I'll choose, "you can choose a different five by seven", you know, just give them free stuff. You know, it's amazing what people will hold on to in business for the sake of just an extra $100 of expenditure, they would rather you know, it's not about winning or being right. Very different mindset to me to policing where my command had to be obeyed. "You know you're under arrest. Please get in the vehicle. Stop punching that person." You know, I had an authority. I don't run my, and I mirrored people's behavior in that job. If I got out of the car at a domestic dispute and people would come out spitting and swinging, I wouldn't spit and swing, but I wouldn't be like, "Hello, how are you?". In business, I'm always the same. I just do me and I'm client focused. If clients are moody, a bit rude, a bit off, not my problem. Probably nothing even to do with me. I just make sure I stick to my own standard of communication, behavior and attitude towards them. You know, everyone's got their stuff. Some people carry it around at the front a lot more than the rest of us, you know. And you can feel they've had some trauma or pain, and they're projecting it on everyone or, you know, the way they deal with things. It's not all the same. So I've just got this, you know, this thing that my whole philosophy is attract clients through marketing, run them through my business system, the robust system I've built, which is all that my emails, my communication, my education, they then give me their money because they love the whole service and the photos, and they leave happy. If at anywhere they're not happy, I go back to whatever stage the wheels fell off in that system, and I fix it, they have to leave happy. And, you know, there's another thing that you're talking about, taking responsibility. I mentioned before, if something goes wrong, you know, one of the other rules is always wear your business hat. You know, always think, "I can't be Alex Cearns, the ex-cop in this business. I have to be Alex Cearns, Houndstooth Studio. I've spent 15 years building this business. One bad day and bad attitude can undo all of that, if I'm not on my game, you know, and if I ever get client feedback, "Hi, I didn't like", you know, somewhat could be, you know, "I didn't like I had to pay for my session when I booked it", and I felt like that was because we, you know, take the session fee when you book the session, even if it's years later, you know, "I didn't like that. I just want to let you know", or it could be. And I've had probably 15 diabolical clients out of what, seven and a half to 8000 it's pretty slim number, you know, very, very small amount, but I can remember all of them, you know. And I've had some absolute shockers. But what I'm grateful for come from gratitude. They came to me and not the internet. And I've had people, you know, one client, send a product back and write me the nastiest letter about how they decided they now hate the photo they chose. And "This is a bad photo, but you put it in there for me to choose. And, you know, your whole experience was rubbish", which none of that was true, but at the same time, that was how they felt in that moment. You know, that's pretty heartbreaking when someone sends back the product that they ordered saying they hate it so much now, but that even though they choose that photo that, you know, it ruined their whole experience. I was grateful that person came to me and not the internet, you know. And I could fix that. I could make sure they were happy, you know. So even if it's the hardest thing to hear, if you have to take the emotion out of it, it's business. Put your business hat on, even if it's an invisible one. And if that gives you that mindset of right now 'I'm in business mode', they're not attacking me. They've got a complaint they feel is valid, even though I might think it's insanity. They're not happy, you know, either you've been paid at that point and they're not happy, fix it, or you haven't done the purchase appointment and they're not happy, so you're not going to get paid, fix it, you know. And communication, if I get an angry email. I'm just right. "Thank you so much for your email and for sharing your thoughts and feelings. I really appreciate you coming to me with this, and I'll, you know, take on board what you said, Have a great day."

Andrew Hellmich: Is that what you would do for the one that say complained about paying up front?

Alex Cearns: Yeah, I'd say I might even I don't get into the story too much, you know, I can get it. Oh, well, look, you know, I have bills to pay too, and, you know, people don't show up. If they don't pay, the client doesn't care. I just say, "Thanks so much for your feedback. I really appreciate", you know, because in a day, if it's one person, if it's 15 people saying that, I might have a problem. You know, probably if even three people said I'd reassess the system that they're complaining about. If it's one person to just one person that's a little bit difficult, probably in lots of areas of their life, and maybe that was a tight financial week. And instead of expressing that to me, asking for an extension, communication is key, they didn't communicate, you know, so they felt squeezed, no problem. And that isn't actually, that's not actually real life scenario I've ever had that happen. I was just trying to think of something that they might complain about. So I would just say, "Look, I understand, yeah, you know, finances are tough, but I'm just wanna let you know, but you're awfully secured now, though, I really appreciate your payment, and, you know, looking forward to seeing you", just kill them with kindness, because you can't kill them. Philosophy for life. You know, if we're all just a little bit kinder and not thinking everyone's out to attack us, they're just some people just expressing themselves in a way that may have an edge to it, that we take offense to. It hurts our feelings. But in business, there can't be an edge or feelings. There has to just be a professional response. Don't engage, you know? I might say, "I'm so sorry. I appreciate your feedback. Yeah, one of our policies is that we take payment upfront, but I'll take on board what you've said." People want to be heard, you know, and want to be considered. They want to be validated. That client would probably then write back and say, "Oh yeah, thank you so much. Look, I'm sorry I was a bit short. Had a tough week, but no, I fully understand why I have to pay now", and you'll win them back around. The amount of people that, again, you know, attract more bees with honey that you just give a bit of kindness to, and they and they're not. They can't stay angry. You know, even if it's something small, like that.

Andrew Hellmich: You also say in your list here to me that you should always say thank you. It's polite and makes us memorable. Like, do you have to actually say that? Like, do people not do that?

Alex Cearns: Yeah, you'd be amazed. So in that sense, I'm talking more. Always say thank you. You know, be grateful for clients. You know one thing you know right now, in this current market, any clients are good clients and any spending is good spending. You know, the world's on fire. There are so many distractions out there for people's money. You know, there are very few people probably sitting around in the world right now saying, "Do you know what I feel like? I feel like a pet photo shoot." They're not, they're saying, "I feel like not getting COVID for the fifth time. I feel like not having to work five jobs. I feel like not having the world go into recession. I feel like not, you know, being under attack from another country trying to invade us." You know, there's so many things I feel like not having to listen to politics because it's a mess. You know, people are very distracted. So the thank you thing is just be, you know, comes from gratitude, but more to do with if anyone in your business helps you, if you work with a charity, and they give you a platform to use to promote, if a brand, you win a competition. I am about 10 years ago, I entered a Lowepro photo competition and posted this little picture of a seal, and it won a Lowepro bag. And the guy from the then there was a company repping Lowepro bags. Wrote to me and said, "What's your address for your bag?" And I got the bag. And to be honest, already had a Lowepro bag. Didn't really need another one, but I wrote and said, "I've got the bag. It's amazing. Thank you." Someone to say thank you for this wonderful prize. And he wrote back and said, "Wow, no one ever says thank you. Also, I like your dog photography." So I sat on email for about a year, and then I thought, my brain's kind of growing. Maybe I could, and I can, very loyal to the brands I use. Maybe I could rip these bags. So I wrote back to him and said, "Hey, I don't know if you remember me a year ago. I said, thank you. And you said, thank you for the thanks." And he said, "Well, of course I remember you because you said, thank you." And I said, "Look, you know, would I be a good fit for this bag company?" And he said, "Look, we've kind of got enough ambassadors for that, but we also represent Tamron, and you might be a good fit for that. And I was like, "Look, I'm sorry, I don't know how to say this, but I've just gone and bought very expensive other brand lenses, and don't know if Tamron can match those." And he said, "Well, no, they can. We're making a super Performance Series range, and we just want to, we'll send you a portrait lens to use the equivalent of what you're using, and just use it for three weeks and let us know what you think." And that was a decade ago. Pretty much never taken that stuff off, which I love, because part of my role for them was to show that you can take professional photos with the Tamron lenses. And you know, in that instance, there's no need to pay more money for a brand name, necessarily. So that all came from saying, "Thank you." You know, I'll never forget that. It's just the whole, you know, I always come from gratitude. We might be mad at a client for something, but you know what a client you're mad at is better than no client at all, in all honesty. You know, everything's, you know, growing and learning, and right now, there's just so many things, not only competing for people's time and attention, but competing for their money as well. You know, we operate in a luxury service market. It's a want, not a need. You know, people don't have to have photos of their pets. So, you know, another rule I have is, 'don't be mad at your money'. And it's not my rule. I heard that from someone that some entrepreneur probably said it. But you know, we can get spoiled in this industry by constantly having big sales. So if we don't make two grand to three five grand a sale, "Oh, only made $500", we're disappointed. I never want to lose the value of money. You know, if someone was standing there with $500 on the street saying, "Do you want this or should I give it to your competitor?" I'd take it. You know, if there's $100 note on the ground, would you pick it up because it's flying around, if it's a dollar coin, would you pick it up if there's even cash out? I don't know. You know, my father is a so being self-employed his whole life, he owned news agents, and he used to throw newspapers. He was the paper man. And I remember he said, just recently, before he retired, drove around with him one night, and the street was kind of split in two, and he had one side of the street and those suburbs, and another newspaper man had the other side. And somewhere one of the newspapers from the competitors side had blown over to my dad's side of the road, and we didn't know where it had come from. And he picked it up, and he ripped the top off the paper, and he said, "If I send this, this newspaper heading back to the newspaper company, I get $1 return. That newspaper, I just would throw it in the trash". To him, that was $1, you know? And I was like, "Wow, every dollar counts", you know. So any sales are good sale. Sometimes when times have been tough, you know, it's the small sales in volume that have kept me going, you know. So it's not, if we hear about, you know, everyone has that aspiration of "We want to make X number of dollars a sale. And I'm not going to do this job with it." But you know what in the current market, take whatever you can get and take everyone you can get, you know, any client and anything they're going to give you take it because, you know who knows what's coming next week, you know, in current financial market.

Andrew Hellmich: So then, with that in mind, maybe you adjusted your price list so that you have some lower cost goods that people can purchase?

 
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Andrew Hellmich: I've got one last question about your editing, but before that, I've mentioned your coaching. You've mentioned a couple of times, how do people work with you? Like, where should we go to learn more about you and what you can do for us, particularly if you're a pet photographer.

Alex Cearns: So I have a website called Black Cat Consulting, if you like, I'll send you the link so we can pop it in the text along with the chat. And I have a couple of programs. I have a seven week one on one program specifically for pet photography, where I give you my business system, but I tweak it and tailor it to you so it covers everything from, you know, I guess pet photographers who are just starting out. I've worked with people who've been in the industry for 30 years. I cover pricing and assessments for you, and we've sort out pricing. I teach you about marketing and a whole suite of email communication templates and just systems and processes that we use for clients. It's quite unique in that I even write the templates for you and put your information in there on the calls live as we talk, so that you don't have to then go and draft them up yourself. Basically, get to use my brain as much as we can. And yeah, it's been highly successful. It gives people a massive head start by a few years in the industry. They don't have to go and do all the mistakes that I made and waste all the money I wasted for the first probably five years, five to eight years of trying to finesse the system. And yeah, I can also coach people in other genres as well, with all sorts of actually, even small businesses and creatives as well as photographers, just, you know, troubleshooting, I do mentoring and management for those people. So that's all listed on the website, but my baby, I guess, is the seven week peptography program, because I can guarantee, if people follow that program, they'll make money.

Andrew Hellmich: Is that marketing as well, Alex? Or is it more?

Alex Cearns: Yeah

Andrew Hellmich: It is.

Alex Cearns: Yeah, there's a whole lot of marketing there to do with working with charities, where, how you're running a store at an event, Facebook section there on Facebook, working with businesses and brands, and just, you know, connecting with industry people, all sorts of stuff in there. So there's two of those. Calls are just purely marketing, and calls are two to about two to three hours, generally, up to that a week for seven weeks, seven modules. And, yeah, it's a lot. It's obviously a lot of me and that being one on one, and I've had people say, "You could just put it online." And, you know, I think you know that personal interaction, people can ask direct questions and get direct access is really important. So, you know, just I don't mind that. It's very time intensive. It's how I like to work. So have intakes every few months. Next one, have a couple people that I can fit in for June, and the next one is August after that.

Andrew Hellmich: Fantastic. All right, so that's Black Cat Consulting. So the program that you talked about just now is that the mentoring and management, or is that something different?

Alex Cearns: The Business Acceleration Program. Yeah, mentoring and management is for anyone else, Sony, any other photography businesses I've worked with, wedding photographers, landscape photographers, portrait photographers, boudoir, maternity and then small businesses and creatives as well. I have a rather, I would say, annoying, annoying brain that couldn't MacGyver. Remember that TV show MacGyver, where he can give him a bit of string and some tin foil and he can make an airplane. I have a brain that's kind of similar, like I can, any problem that's presented to me my brain can just start, just goes into overdrive to solve it, which is great if you've got a business problem. Not so great if you just want to come home and download about your bad day. My brain's trying to fix it for you. But I love that. You know, I used to be like, "Oh, my brain doesn't stop. It's always thinking of solutions." But I'm not a problems person, and that's why, in business, I think I've survived. If I come up against a brick wall, I've got around it, over, under it. Pay someone to move it, you know, move it myself, get some friends in, whatever I've got to do to move forward. And so I have a pretty strong mindset when it comes to business, and a brain that can just push through and think of alternatives to situations to get stuff moving. So that's why it works with everything, pretty much, which I love now. It's great for coaching.

Andrew Hellmich: Fantastic. I'll add links again to that and where people can find that in the show notes, but it's blackcatconsulting.com.au, and that's the accelerating program. Alex, I just wanted to ask you about your editing, because I know that you said earlier, only working basically 10 hours a week or under for the photography side of business, are using or utilizing AI at all? Or is everything still hands on with you?

Alex Cearns: No, I have a contracted retoucher. So basically, what I would do, I pick out, as soon as I do the shoots and get back to my office on the Saturday, I pick out one picture from each shoot for a sneak peek that I send to the retoucher. They just do basic background editing. Remove dribble dog fur, clean up the backgrounds to make sure they're true black sometimes with white dogs, the backgrounds are pretty good with dark dogs. I have to throw more light at them so you can see the background a lot more. And then that goes online on Wednesday. Then on Wednesday, I just quickly run through those three hundred pictures and pick out my favorite 30 to 35 and I show those to the clients straight from camera. So there's the one retouch photo that was the sneak peek. And I say to them, "This is clean. Everything else is dirty. Anything you order will be cleaned", and then whatever they order, I then fire off to the retoucher. It probably saves me. That would be, you know, 20 or 30 hours a week of just retouching alone. So, and I've done that, I've had to retouch it for about a decade. It just saves me so much time. And you can even do that the same principle, if you're shooting outdoors, just show the clients you don't have to edit every photo. Show them a headshot and a body shot with the leash and collar removed, and say "These are retouched. The rest will look like this. That leash and collar will disappear. There'll be this color tone, everything like this kind of vibe." That's what they'll end up looking like. People can understand that, especially using words like dirty and clean, you know, edited, retouched, all that. Just dirty and clean. This is dirty. This is clean. And they go, yeah, nine times out of 10 they don't even see the dirty stuff. They're like, "I didn't notice that drool on those treats everywhere in that fluff." I'm like, "I do. I'm like, oh god, that's terrible. That has to go." But they're just looking at their dog, you know, and how cute it looks. So they don't even see it.

Andrew Hellmich: I love that.

Alex Cearns: Yeah, it definitely saves me heap of time.

Andrew Hellmich: Huge. Yeah, because I think so many photographers are afraid to show unedited images in a purchasing appointment, but obviously you're proof that it can work, so, fantastic.

Alex Cearns: Oh, totally. And honestly, Andrew, kind of it works in my benefit, because when they get that finished product, they're like, "Wow, it looks even better than I thought." And I know that's because they saw it with fluff and treats and dribble everywhere, you know, and they don't realize, but their brain has gone, "Wow, this looks even nicer than I imagined", because it's been tidied up. So it works in my favor. But yes, some of my you know, I wouldn't dare show them here. The clients see them, and that's it. They don't get, you know, them on disk or anything unedited. Everything has to be edited that they order. But, yeah, I wouldn't, you know, show other people those photos, because they do, those need a bit of tidying up. You know, we all like to just show the end result. And sometimes the client will say, "Don't worry about it", like, "Oh no, I worry about it." That's part of your service. It's mandatory, you know, getting it without.

Andrew Hellmich: Just quickly, last question I didn't ask when I showed up. Who are you using to print your work and drop ship?

Alex Cearns: I use Fitzgerald Photo Imaging in Perth. So they're a pro lab. They do a whole range of products. And they, yeah, basically just send them the clients details, and they drop ship direct, and they can ship all over the country. So they're fantastic. And they package everything properly. They've got a person that's just in charge of the shipping stuff. So it's all tracked, you know. And, you know, probably in the last maybe four years, since I've been doing that, probably had three orders that were damaged, and not by the couriers, like, you know, literally treading on it or something, you know, I don't have, you know, very, very few problems from actual lab quality stuff. It's not to do with the delivery, you know, and severe delivery, where they, like, you know, just smash it into a fence for fun with some of this stuff. But, and again, I just feel, and, you know, Fitzgerald, we call them. They reprint that for me, if it's on them, if it's something I've done, I pay for it. And you know, we have a great relationship. It helps. You know, my awesome best friend owns that lab. But again, that's a relationship I've built over the years from being a loyal client. And you know, I have a great, a great you know one of my business trusted business competence and advisors, Paul. He runs a lab.

Andrew Hellmich: So beautiful.

Alex Cearns: Yes, great place to print.

Andrew Hellmich: So good. Alex, I'm so glad for the chance to connect again to do this. You're amazing. Congratulations on your success. I am still amazed at what you do achieve, even though you've told me how you do it. Thanks again for coming on and sharing what you have.

Alex Cearns: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it a lot.