Todays guest needs no introduction for any photographer, especially those interested in creating beautiful portraits of women. For clients, her style of portraiture give them the experience of looking like the women in magazines and feeling beautiful. For photographers, her work is simply to die for. Obviously, I'm talking about Sue Bryce and in this interview, she teaches how to make real money from photography business right now.
Sue is a multi-award winner of some seriously cool awards including the WPPI's Premier Grand Award and Australian Portrait Photographer of the year multiple times. She's also one savvy business woman and fantastic teacher. Interestingly, Sue is seen as the face of Creative Live but in reality, her prime source of income remains portrait photography.
I sent out 1200 copies of my special offer and within two weeks I had 131 sittings booked in, pretty soon we were doing $15,000 a week, all from a garage in the country.
If you are a follower of Sue, you will be aware that she has a unique ability to change and adapt her business model to suit the way she likes to work and what her clients want. I was intrigued to hear what she's doing in her business now and that it's an adaption of what wedding photographers have always been offering their clients. Not only does Sue have set prices, she's also getting paid upfront and before the scheduled portrait photography session.
Here's some more of what we cover:
Listening back to this interview, I've taken more notes than any previous interview. Sue is a businesswoman, gifted with an incredible talent for photography and an ability to teach and share what she knows almost unconsciously. Every answer, every sentence from Sue held a lesson. I know you'll love this episode if you're serious about improving your photography business. When I say improve, what I mean is make it more profitable, lots more.
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 implementable content from where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for that include:
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.
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you'd like to ask or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.
If you'd like an easy way to show Sue your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically let her know you're listening: https://photobizx.com/sue
The Resources Page
Remember the ever expanding resources page that has a listing of products, programs, hardware, books and directories mentioned in each episode of the show. If you’re looking for something that a guest has mentioned on a previous episode but just can’t remember who or what it was – you’ll find it listed in order on the resources page.
iTunes ratings, reviews and Shout-Outs
Each week before recording the podcast I check iTunes for any reviews and each week I'm excited to see what you've had to say about the podcast. This week I was blown away to see two fantastic reviews! Thanks you so much to:
Jon P Shar from the USA
Ross Hurley of Ross Hurley Photography located at Kent in the UK
Sincerely, thanks so much for your ratings and reviews, I appreciate the time you've taken and it's a big help for the show. It's these iTunes reviews that make a big difference to the podcast being ranked well and found in the iTunes store. If you have the time and are happy to leave an honest rating and review, head over to iTunes.
Don't feel your comments have to be long, involved or gushy, an honest opinion is all I ask. Don't be shy about leaving your business name in the review either – that way I can add a link in the show-notes and show my appreciation with a proper thanks and a Google loving back-link to your website.
Do You Have a Question about Your Business or Marketing?
If you'd like to get in touch, ask a question or make a suggestion for the show, you can email me andrew@photobizx.com, find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewhellmich or on Facebook at https://photobizx.com/facebook – I'd love to hear from you!
Light Blue Studio Management Software
I finally took the plunge and have installed Light Blue onto our studio computers and Linda is in charge of learning, implementing then teaching all of us about the software. It's not something she's excited about.
So far, the video tutorials have been a big help as has the email support from Hamish. I'll update you as the implementation takes place and fill you in on our experience as we go.
Jean Smith Workshop is almost Full
Jean Smith appeared on the podcast in episode 37 and really opened some eyes when it comes to photographing family portraits and selling her images. She has a fantastic business that allows her to live a wonderful lifestyle and she's coming to Brisbane, Australia to teach a small, intimate lifestyle photography workshop February 6th and 7th.
Topics she'll be covering include style and creativity, posing and working with your subject, using equipment creatively, natural lighting, artificial lighting, workflow, post processing and business.
There will also be a live shoot and meals are included – sounds awesome!
Email Jean at jean@jeansmithphotography.com for more information or you can find more information here: www.jeansmithphotography.com/blog/australia-workshop.
Here are some links to Jean's website, blog and FB page if you want to check more of her work:
www.jeansmithphotography.com/blog
www.facebook.com/jeansmithphotography
Commenting on PhotoBizX and the Comment Luv Plugin
Long term listeners will know that I installed the Comment Luv plugin on the PhotoBizX website to not only encourage you to leave comments and get involved following each episode but to also provide you with a ‘do-follow' link to your website or blog post.
To qualify for a ‘do-follow' link, you need to have at least two comments approved and published in an attempt to prevent spammers gaining links to dodgy sites.
There has been some news that Google is penalising websites that are providing do follow links to spammy sites. This isn't new but an update to their algorithm in 2012 means they are much more strict about the penalties in regards to rankings. One SEO expert that I've interviewed (episode 3) and trust is William Bay from Flaunt Your Site who recently published an article about the plugin and warning about having the plugin installed on a website.
After more research at my end and definitely not wanting to harm the ranking of your site or mine, I've found that if the comments are relevant to the post and the links are also relevant, there is no problem. If you've ever checked the comments on PhotoBizX, you'll know there isn't a single spammy comment anywhere. I've taken great lengths in moderating every comment that comes through and all are legitimate on the site.
If you are still concerned about a link to your site, simply leave a comment and don't link to your site or blog posts. If you feel your comments are relevant as is the link, continue to use the comments as a way to build back links to your site.
Here's an interesting and relevant article if you'd like more information:
http://seohour.com/seo/does-commentluv-links-affect-your-blogs-seo/
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
The Light That Shines on YouTube
Equipment
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
Hoodman RAW Steel SDHC 16GB UHS-1 Secure Digital Card
That's it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
If you've been enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to tell another photographer about it – it could be in a Facebook Group you're a part of, a photography forum, with a photographer friend or on twitter.
If you do have a twitter account, simply click here: https://photobizx.com/tweet or use the share buttons below.
Thanks and speak soon Andrew
As I mentioned on twitter and G+, great listen.Having read your notes prior to listening I can see you have gone to a big effort in putting this interview together.
Many things to ponder but one thing that is on my plate right now is making up promo flyers for local distribution. The idea of vouchers, and even just using this term instead of “free” or discount” sits much better with me and I’ll adopt.
This episode was 6 months in the planning Orlando 🙂
Great to hear you had some takeaways and thanks for sharing on social media too – that’s a massive help and very much appreciated!
wow, no wonder it came together so well.
I’ll be listening to it again, I’ve got a long drive coming up so this podcast will be perfect.
Your in my Australian notifications circle now on G+ so I’ll be sure not to miss your posts 🙂
cheers
Sue Bryce! Yes, I’ve been waiting for this interview for over a year now. Finally, the “Ferrari” of glamour photography has made it to Andrew’s hot seat! Totally love it!
So yeah, my biggest takeaways were, well so many actually, so I’ll just mention that I can totally relate when Andrew spoke about “Photographers don’t really want to be a business person; they just want to shoot”. And I could feel the vibe loud and clear when Sue was talking about making money and how we need to know our average sale and have a business plan.
I have a question for Sue…Sue, if I were to ask somebody, “How do you want to be photographed?” I’d probably get some really weird looks. I’d be like my Dentist asking me how I wanted him to pull my tooth. Sorry for the bad analogy. I just didn’t quite fully understand how you want us to pull that off with a client. Could you clarify in all the free time you don’t have ; )
And Sue, your favorite lens used to be the 35 1.4L I always wondered how you pulled that off as a portrait lens. But you always rocked it! But it is nice to see you bumped it up to the 50 1.2L. And btw, how in the world do you shoot video at 1.2 on your 5D3? You must be a badass! Oh wait, you’re Sue Bryce, you ARE a badass! And you were so chill during the interview. I really felt like I was there just listening.
And see Andrew?…It’s Nikon…..not Nickon hahaha j/k
Excellent Sue!!
Thanks Andrew for managing to snag Sue for this interview.
Joey Joiner
Glad you enjoyed this interview Joey – and my apologies for not giving you the shout out as promised.
It was pretty clear how comfortable Sue was when speaking wasn’t it!
Nikon or Nickon… it definitely wasn’t Canon 🙂
Hi Andrew! Thanks so much for this Interview. I got so much from this and I’m super motivated! I’ve taken down so many notes (my page looks like a mess!). Really looking forward to sorting out the marketing side of things and focusing on what inspires me. Love your interviews, they have helped so much. The only decent Photography podcast out there and I tell all my Photographer buddies every time there’s a new one out. Thanks a bunch 🙂 x Lucy
Hi Lucy – my pleasure and love that you have a mess of notes following this episode. I really felt during the edit process that everything Sue had to say was worth taking notes on… it seems I wasn’t the only one. 🙂
Thanks for the fantastic rap about the podcast Lucy, you’ve made my day. And thanks too for sharing with your buddies – that’s a massive help and very much appreciated!
So happy to have you listening.
Amazing!! Andrew I’ve been waiting for this interview for a long time. Biggest take away hmmm….
The fact that we need to be networking with industry vendors, creating leads, exhibiting at bridal fairs, getting lists, following up, creating content and just doing anything and everything to create that buzz and interest around our businesses. Everything I’ve been trying to do lately which really takes a lot of time and energy to do but I can see the rewards will be great.
Thanks mate
It is hard work and most of that work to get noticed doesn’t include photography which is a shock to a lot of ‘newbies’ getting into professional photography.
Glad you enjoyed the interview Andrew and that your hard work is starting to pay off. There’s no denying how mch you’ve been doing for your business.
Awesome interview! I have watched Sue on every CreativeLive she’s attended I believe, and she even changed my thoughts on being a mother and feeling the need to run a super successful business while trying to raise little ones. I love the image of Brooke Shaden (old hollywood glamour) that’s above there, that whole series is gorgeous.
My question for Sue is this. I have been ‘out’ for about a year, homeschooling and taking care of my family, I miss shooting and running a full time studio. It was my decision to stop and slow down, but I wish to get back ‘in’. What’s some good advice on where to start? I don’t feel I can go about asking my price that I was at before which was about an average of $1000 per client in my small, rural, southern Illinois town. Since I have been not taking clients, my ‘competitors’ have lowered their prices to literally $35 a shoot with a disc. I can’t afford, nor want to go that low, I just won’t do it. I know my target client, and what I should price myself for. But, should I lower my prices to basically start over, then work my way back up? Also should I charge to rebuild my portfolio, or gift shoots like you talked about?
Thank you for your time, I know you are super busy!
Andrew, thanks for being so diligent in getting Sue on! Be Blessed and Be Inspired, Tara Eveland
Glad you enjoyed this one Tara, I know you’ve been waiting a while to hear Sue on the show.
Thanks so much Andrew for getting Sue on your show. Iv been waiting for this one since first signing up and what an amazing interview it was. Sue is mind blowing, I wrote 5 pages of notes and cant wait to get started on all she shared. Its a huge game changer for me and hearing her gorgeous kiwi accent, well it just made me so proud to be a fellow NZer. Cant thankyou enough.
Haha, five pages! That’s great, I love it!
I’d love to hear about any changes you make and how they affect your business she you get a chance in the future.
So nice to hear how proud you are. I get that feeling from a lot of New Zealanders and it even comes through in the interviews I’ve sone with photographers like Tania Niwa, Bianca Duimel, Kate MacPherson and Rachel Callander.
Hi Andrew and Sue,
Thanks for a great episode. Sue, I have heard you speak many times and each time I appreciate your focus on helping photographers get over their blocks regarding value, marketing, money, etc.
I appreciate your honest and candid approach to teaching (and to life, it seems!) 🙂
Thanks again!
Gillian
My pleasure Gillian – glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you sooo much loved the show with my life mentor Sue Bryce!
My pleasure Adriana – glad you enjoyed it and hope you get a chance to explore a few more interviews.
Great interview with Sue Bryce. Inspirational powerhouse just what I needed to hear today
Thanks Andrea, powerhouse is perfect description! Hope this week has started well for you.
wow! I am blown away both by what Sue had to share with us and the effort you put in putting this together!
Thank you so much
My pleasure Ali – glad you enjoyed listening to Sue as much as I did. Hope you discover a few more episodes that strike a chord with you.
So awesome! I just had to sign up for premium when I saw Sue Bryce was being interviewed; I just adore her work and she’s inspired me so much to specialise in photographing women. I took so much away from this, but especially getting to see the value in YouTube which I’ve been resisting. Thank you so much for this!
Hey Anjella, welcome to the Premium Membership! I know you’ll love the extra content, as you’ve discovered, there’s some really cool info that guests share that not all listeners are getting access to.
Make sure you check out episode 34 with Gabriel Machuret and 44 with James Schramko for some more ideas on how to incorporate and use video effectively on your site and for attracting lots of new clients.
Andrew,
So many great take aways this episode, in particular the importance of YouTube. I am in the process of making a couple of YouTube videos and this podcast has given me the hurry up that I needed. Also very interested to see how Linda goes using Light Blue.
Great to ear your comments Sam – hope you’re doing well! I missed you at the last meet up at Family Image Photography.
I’ve passed your comments onto Linda, for a bit of added pressure 😉
Light bulb moment after lightbulb moment – Thanks Andrew and Sue for sharing such a great amount of info. Gaelene and I have now viewed a few of Sue’s Creative Live workshops and are inspired to greater things. Thanks again!!!
The big takeaway from this one is to take responsibility when a sale goes bad. I really enjoyed what she had to say about how a sale will go bad because of not listening, not educating and not delivering. Taking responsibility for the outcome of a sale or non-sale is the difference between learning from mistakes and making excuses.
Thanks Sue and Andrew!
Great takeaway Jamie and not one that’s easy to follow. So often bad sale is followed by blaming the client or justifying why we did everything right and nothing could have improved that sale. Love Sue’s approach, it’s one that draws similarities with war Steve Saporito ‘preaches’ when teaching portrait sales.
Another great interview Andrew, loads to digest and Sue was really inspiring, I do like the idea of using your blog as an archive repository for your Facebook posts, especially if some malicious *** does something naughty and reports your account.
Thanks Paul – Sue is definitely an inspiration!
I agree about using your blog as the place to ‘house’ your content – who knows what will happen to FB, IG or any other platform someday, even without anything malicious. Your site is something you own and control, it’s the perfect location to keep your content and drive your traffic to.
James Schramko from episode 44 uses the term – “Own the Racecourse” in reference to the property where your digital assets are stored. It’s good advice.
Thank you Sue and Andrew for this podcast.
By the way Sue, I just loved the pictures you did for Susan Stripling recently. And how you reminded photographers to get in front of the camera was powerful. The emotional benefits that you communicate are excellent and really are things that will help me. After all, photos are emotions right.
Sue in this podcast your sales pitches were inspirational. I just love how shamelessly you can just roll into a pitch 🙂 It’s the foundation for success – tell everyone what you do and never miss the opportunity to self promote. Awesome.
I also loved hearing about the ‘system’. I totally agree. Your system makes a ton of sense to me.
Thanks for all the marketing tips too. Really inspirational. My head has been so focussed on SEO recently that I stopped to think about competitions and vouchers and I can really see how that would help with family portraits. I really enjoyed to hear the first place winner gets a bigger package, and runners-up get a shoot and smaller package. Really clever. This way you can book a lot of clients whilst still giving them all something for ‘free’.
And a ‘free’ shoot for an influential person followed by vouchers was awesome. To pitch that it was a ‘paid’ gift from that person was genius. I didn’t quite understand how you did this though. You gave an example of a gym. Would that person be the owner of the gym and then leave vouchers in reception? If you could share any more tips on this system that would be much appreciated.
Sue, I do wonder what products you and Nikki actually include in your packages? You talk a lot the system and the shoot, but I didn’t quite understand what the client actually takes away with them. Are they able to choose for themselves and can they purchase more?
I am considering to use Pro Select for family shoots to up sell wall displays as I think it is perfect to see the displays on clients’ own walls. Do you recommend this type of selling, or you simply prefer the simplicity of having a fixed package?
You know Andrew, you gave me so many tips and ideas that by the end of 2014 I had to STOP listening to your podcasts 🙂 They were coming quicker than I could implement them.
And I would like to say a massive thank you Andrew for your help you shared by email in November. Your Avada WordPress theme tip was what I had been looking for, and so I spent all the winter finally building my new blog. I’m so stoked with my new site which is now live and I am working hard on providing excellent content for SEO. I will be implementing tips learnt from PBX061 Bill Murphy and PBX079 Zach Prez for targeting influencers, writing great content and getting it promoted on other blogs. Thanks so much.
OK sorry for the long comment and a massive thank you for all you do for us 🙂
Hey Paul – great to read how much you took from this episode and I agree, Sue is totally awesome!
I’m unsure what products Sue is selling as part of her package right now but I do know she is always open to trying new things and adapting to the market. The last I heard, she was offering a series of 8×10 prints and one larger framed print. These were all chosen by Sue and prepared for the client before they even see their images. Not sure if this is what she is doing today?
I checked your website… very cool! How good is the Avada theme.
Great to have you listening and commenting Paul, hope you’re well!
Speak soon
Andrew
[…] a ton of incredible photographers such as Fer Juaristi, Jonas Peterson, Kirk Mastin, and Sue Bryce just to name a few. Andrew never asks the same questions to each guest and he’s always engaging. […]
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