536: Marie Wulfram – How to utilise event giveaways to generate photography leads

536: Marie Wulfram - How to utilize event giveaways to generate photography leads

 

Andrew Hellmich: Today's guest is a true animal lover. She worked in veterinary medicine for over eight years and decided to pursue a career in pet photography. Following that, it was COVID that opened the door for her to start her business and go after that dream she had of being a pet photographer. Interestingly, it took just over a year to crack the six figure milestone, and she did it without doing consultation calls and without pretending to be an extrovert. And on her About Page, on her website, she says, and she shares that she's autistic, introverted and prefers to stay behind the computer and the camera. She's been recommended to me by multiple premium members, and I am rapt to have her with me now. I'm talking about Marie Wolfram, and here she is. Marie, welcome. How are you?

Marie Wulfram: Good, I'm happy to be here.

Andrew Hellmich: Awesome. So tell me, why did you decide to chase or go after becoming a pet photographer?

Marie Wulfram: You know, I ask myself that question all the time because I can't quite remember exactly where the turning point was, but there was definitely just a moment where it just kind of hit me one day of I'd been doing vet med for so long, and I'd been a hobby photographer for so long, so why don't I just meld the two together? And that's exactly what I did.

Andrew Hellmich: Like, did you hear a podcast? Do you know other pet photographers like, did you even know it was a thing?

Marie Wulfram: I didn't at all. And that's part of why I've been trying to figure out where exactly I got that idea. Part of me thinks I may have just stumbled upon an ad on Facebook, and it just got that ball rolling, and it just made it a bit of a reality for me. So I dove in and learned all about it.

Andrew Hellmich: Unbelievable. So how do you think that you got to over six figures within or just over 12 months, because to me, it has to be a ton of sessions, a ton of clients, or you came in with a pretty good price list that put you in a position to be able to reach those figures.

Marie Wulfram: I did. I started pretty much right out the gate doing IPS, and I also was massively overworking myself in the very beginning. I was a 2am kind of person, so I woke up at 2am all the time, just so that I had the time to work on my business, because I also have a young kid at home, so it was very much a balancing act. But it was definitely any free time that I had was business time. And I just, I tend to research things very heavily and extensively. I also invested in education very early on. So I joined Hair of the Dog. I found your podcast. I found a number of other podcasts as well. And I'm also very heavy on actually taking action on the things that I learned. So as soon as I learned something, I tend to implement it pretty quickly.

Andrew Hellmich: Awesome, unreal. So do you think it was the number of clients, or was it a good price list that positioned you to make that money?

Marie Wulfram: I think it was a bit of both, because my price list has definitely changed quite a few times over the last two years, but I did start with a pretty decent price list, even in the beginning, it was definitely really scary, but I knew if I wanted to reach the figures that I wanted to reach, that I needed to I couldn't do the shoot and burn at all, and so doing my cost of goods at the very beginning was also very crucial, because it showed me, right off the bat that I needed to do something different from what I had seen like in my community.

Andrew Hellmich: Right. So do you have any kind of business background, your parents in the business of friends, family?

Marie Wulfram: No, none at all.

Andrew Hellmich: Unreal. Are you surprised at your success?

Marie Wulfram: I am. I am definitely super surprised at it. My husband was always a believer that I would do it even right from the beginning, but I was always the kind of person that I'd get an idea. I'd think that I could make a business out of it. I chase it for like, a couple months, and then I drop it. And honestly, that was my biggest worry when I first started pet photography, that it was just going to be another one of those things. But thankfully, it wasn't. And I'm still here.

Andrew Hellmich: Unreal. What about the transition from the vet clinic? Did you quit that and go full time photography? Or did it get affected by COVID? Like, what happened there?

Marie Wulfram: It was a little bit of both. So I first started thinking and playing around with the idea of pet photography in the beginning of 2020, and of course, shortly thereafter, COVID started happening. And so that idea completely went out the window. I didn't even consider it, because I was like, "Well, if I can't even meet up with people, even in public. How could I possibly build a business?" So I actually dove head first into learning about life coaching and Instagram coaching. So I dabbled in that a little bit, which I do think definitely helped me in the long run, because I learned so much about Instagram, I learned quite a lot about coaching, which is something that I offer now as well. And so I guess that kind of set the stage a little bit. And then when restrictions lifted, I was able to pursue the pet photography again, and kind of hit the ground running, since I had a little bit of a, I guess you could say a little bit of a business background at that point, because I kind of built it a little bit. But during COVID, I did withdraw myself from my job. I was supposed to have my position protected. They told me that I could come back once things calmed down, but then when I reached out to go back, they said that they couldn't. They couldn't take me back. They didn't have a spot, which I was very surprised. And I'm not sure if the veterinary industry is the same where you are, but they're massively hurting and super understaffed, so I was very surprised that they didn't take me back. But, you know, one door closes and the other one swing wide open.

Andrew Hellmich: Absolutely, so I'm guessing that that was the real push to make this thing work.

Marie Wulfram: Mm, hmm, absolutely.

Andrew Hellmich: That's so good. Well, so good and so bad, I mean..

Marie Wulfram: Yeah, it was scary for a little bit there.

Andrew Hellmich: Absolutely a blessing in disguise. So tell me about the business now, because it sounds like you hit the ground running. Things were awesome the first year. So you've been in the business now for two years, or just over two years.

Marie Wulfram: A little over two year.

Andrew Hellmich: Figures still going up?

Marie Wulfram: Yeah, absolutely. Currently, if things keep going the way, I hope I do for the rest of the year, I'm on track for 150k for the year. I've already passed 100 for this year.

Andrew Hellmich: So good. So when you throw out figures on that, so 150k for the year, you're talking about gross income, aren't you?

Marie Wulfram: Yes

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, and then, so are you taking home a large portion of that?

Marie Wulfram: A pretty decent amount. I'm not as in the numbers as I really should be. So I don't have exact numbers, but I do believe it's between 40 and 50%.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, awesome. Unreal. So could you obviously have to pay tax and the cost of goods out of that as well?

Marie Wulfram: Yeah, absolutely.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay. So what's your target then for the following year? Do you have one?

Marie Wulfram: Next year? My goal is 200 but my stretch goal is 250.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, so you working with Joel Done?

Marie Wulfram: I'm not.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay. He uses that term all the time, stretch goal. I thought that's a giveaway. I love that. Okay, so you're on target for 150 this year, stretch goals, 250 for the following year. And you said, Well, I said in the intro that I learned about you that you don't make phone calls.

Marie Wulfram: No

Andrew Hellmich: It sounds like you don't talk to clients before the actual session. Is that right?

Marie Wulfram: I do talk to them, but it's all over text. So I basically, I do the consult, but I do it via text the same way that I would do it over a phone call. And people get worried, thinking that texts are going to be too long and people won't read them, but they honestly, really do. And sometimes my clients send me texts that are longer than the ones I send them.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, so why do you choose to go that route?

Marie Wulfram: Part of it is because I'm super introverted, um, which most people don't really pick up on. But I guarantee you, after this call, I'm going to need a nap. Um, but then also, in the very beginning, part of it was because of my son, so I did a lot of the consultation phase, you know, during the day when I had my kiddo, and he is also autistic, and he was dealing with a lot of really big emotions when I first started. So having phone calls was very hard, even when I had to just set up, you know, basic like doctor appointments and things. It was very difficult. So I knew I wouldn't be able to have in depth conversations with clients at that time as well. And then also, secondary to that, because I'm autistic as well, I found it so much easier to have a script that instead of trying to read off of it or memorize it and try to make it sound authentic, it was so much easier for me to just be able to copy and paste those messages into a text, and then at the same time, I can have multiple consultation conversations going on at the same time.

Andrew Hellmich: All right, I want to ask you a couple of things that, I want to ask you more about the text message. You brought up the fact that you're autistic. Your son's autistic. I said it in the intro as well. I don't know a lot about autism. I know very little about it, but obviously, you know, you can still function perfectly with your autism. So there's obviously a, you have a, is a lower grade? Is that how it works?

Marie Wulfram: Yeah. So a lot of people don't really like the term, like higher grade or lower grade, or anything like that, because it is a very broad spectrum. Think of it as like a DJ music board with all the different sliders. And it's just a matter of everybody's sliders are a little bit different. But I am actually quite different from my son. Even he would be what you consider kind of a more higher needs, sort of autistic. And from the way I grew up, I had to kind of learn how to be in the world. I was not diagnosed until, well, actually, technically, I've never been officially diagnosed, but I went through all of the same testing myself that my son went through, and every single one of them came out almost the same as his. So a lot of people in the autism community, they stand behind self-diagnosis, especially when it comes to adults, because it's very hard to get a diagnosis as an adult, but a lot of it is just learned. I had to learn how to function. And, you know, we didn't have the support growing up for mental health and stuff that they have now. It's, it's crazy how much support is out there now, and even then, it's still not enough. So, but, yeah, I just kind of learned how to make it happen and make it work.

Andrew Hellmich: So with autism, like, do you feel it like, do you know you have the symptoms, or do you and you have to suppress them? Or, how does that work?

Marie Wulfram: A little bit. So what you can't see actually right now is, on this call, I have a large dice because I fidget quite a lot. I'm a very fidgety kind of person. I used to be very stuttery. I struggled a lot with connecting with people. It took me a long time to understand human interaction, which sounds weird when I say it like that, but just knowing like what was socially appropriate, what's not socially appropriate. I used to ask a lot of questions of people that would be deemed like socially inappropriate, but it's just because I didn't understand why they were wrong. I'm also not much of a beat around the bush kind of person. I say things as they are. I don't tend to kind of fluff things up for people. I just I speak plainly and I speak whatever comes to my mind. So that does get me in trouble sometimes, and again, it's another reason why I like doing things over text, because I can think them out a little bit more. **A little bit more 11:00**

Andrew Hellmich: So good. Tell me about your clients, and this question is leading somewhere. But yeah, like, what's the demographic of your typical client?

Marie Wulfram: I would say most of them are either single or couples. None of them have kids. I really try to avoid sessions with kids. And you know, most of them are double income, not always though, it's been pretty hard for me to kind of narrow it down, because I do get such a wide variety of clients. I've gotten single people that are younger and older. I've gotten couples that are younger and older. Um, it's really been kind of all over the place, because, as you can imagine, most people have dogs.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, for sure.

Marie Wulfram: But I do find the ones that don't have kids are usually the better ones.

Andrew Hellmich: Better clients?

Marie Wulfram: Yes, they're less divided between the dogs and the kids. So if they only have dogs, they're their entire world. So it's a lot easier, not only to do the session, but also to sell things afterwards as well.

Andrew Hellmich: Understandable, yeah, for sure. The reason I asked you that is because I imagine that you would certainly have some older clients, or middle aged clients, and then you turn up and, like, the listener can't see you, but they certainly can see you on your About Page, and you have that, like, a lip ring.

Marie Wulfram: I do, yeah.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah. Like, so is that a shock to some of, like, some of the clients when they turn up, or the clients partners, when they see you? Like, is that like, "Oh"

Marie Wulfram: No. I've never had it come up. And I've got like, blue and purple hair. I've got lots of tattoos. I generally my work shirt is a tank top, so they see all of my tattoos. Um, I've never run into any issues whatsoever when it comes to that.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, I didn't think you'd have issues. I thought some people would be like, like, shocked, a bit of shock factor, but you don't, you don't even see that.

Marie Wulfram: No, not at all.

Andrew Hellmich: That's so cool. All right, awesome. So tell me about the text message, and you said that you get to copy and paste these text messages. So are you using your phone or an SMS or text service?

Marie Wulfram: I use Google Voice so I can use my phone. I generally do most of my conversations on my laptop, though.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, and then so using Google Voice, do you have saved scripts somewhere else on your computer? Or you just type a few letters?

Marie Wulfram: I just have them on my computer. Yeah, they're just on my computer.

Andrew Hellmich: So are you using something like text expander, you know? So for me, I'll type in, like the, you know, a little keyword, and a whole paragraph will be written. Do you do that same kind of thing? Or you just copy and paste?

Marie Wulfram: That would be smart, but I just copy and paste. I would have a hard time remembering all of the different shortcuts, because I have so many different templates that I've basically created for myself, and they're not always the same flow. So I'll choose, like, a response or a question based on how the conversation is going. So that would be quite a lot of shortcuts for me to have to remember.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, for sure. So what have you Is it a spreadsheet or is it a Word doc?

Marie Wulfram: It's actually, it's just a post it note app that's on my computer.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, this is great.

Marie Wulfram: I keep meaning to switch it over to a Google doc so it's easier for me to access on my phone. Because right now, when I'm using it on my phone, I just kind of, I'll scroll through other clients conversations and just copy and paste from there.

Andrew Hellmich: Yes, all right, so how much of the conversations that you're having are copy and pasted from your templates?

Marie Wulfram: Quite a lot. Most of it honestly. Like, obviously, I'll, you know, adjust them for personalizations, change the names and things like that. And, you know, any candid moments that happen, like, if they're telling me a story, you know, I'll respond, of course, to the story and things like that. But generally, when I'm trying to keep the conversation moving forward and following the general flow that I have, it's all just copy, paste.

Andrew Hellmich: Got it okay? And I've never used Google Voice, certainly for texting. So that's just a an option, a button I can click?

Marie Wulfram: Yeah

Andrew Hellmich: And just send text?

Marie Wulfram: Yeah. It's really awesome. It's just like using messenger, except it's sending texts.

Andrew Hellmich: Right. Okay. And is the Google Voice number, the number like your mobile phone number, or is it a separate number you've set up for your business?

Marie Wulfram: It's a separate one that I set up for my business. I definitely wanted to have that separation in there.

Andrew Hellmich: Right. So then, does that mean you need to have two mobile phones or two SIMs in your phone, or you just hook up to Google?

Marie Wulfram: No, actually, it all just works through the app. So I have the Google Voice app on my phone, and so if I do get phone calls, it'll go through there. So I do know that it is a business phone call, not that I answer anyway. I never answer any phone calls, business or personal. But same for texts. I always know what's a business text and what's not a business text because it'll come through the app versus my regular texts.

Andrew Hellmich: That's so cool. Okay, so what happens if a client does ring you and you don't want to answer? Do they have to leave a voicemail? Or do you just send them a text?

Marie Wulfram: They have to leave a voicemail. I will usually send a text like if they don't leave a voicemail, but anyone who's been actually interested in anything they do leave a voicemail. My voicemail does, you know, direct them to leave a voicemail with a good number to text or their email, and it specifically says that I don't make phone calls in my business, and so it's either give me that information or fill out my contact form.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, so you straight up front about all this, the fact there's gonna be no phone calls.

Marie Wulfram: Oh, yeah.

Andrew Hellmich: So tell me if I, let's say I respond to one of your ads or a promotion you're running. You've never worked with me before, and I ring you, I leave a voicemail and say, "Hey, it's Andrew here. I'm interested in having my dog photographed by you. Love your work." Do you then enter my details into your contacts list so you know that if I text you again,

Marie Wulfram: I do. Yes, I have it all in my phone. I do keep all of my contacts together so that I have all the names and everything. I have them organized like I don't put just their name as their name. I'll put like an L for lead or a C for clients, just to keep it somewhat organized in my contacts. But yeah, I save all of that information, and then I do have for people that do reach out and we do have a little bit of a conversation, I do put them into my CRM, so I have that saved outside of just my phone.

Andrew Hellmich: Got it and which CRM are you using?

Marie Wulfram: Dubsado

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, we talked about that in last week's episode, which is pretty cool. Okay, so I call you, I make an inquiry. You've obviously had my name and my number, so then you manually add that, or you just add my details, then into your contact list and label me as a lead.

Marie Wulfram: Yep

Andrew Hellmich: And then you reply, not from your phone. You wait till you get home and in front of your computer, and you'll send me a text.

Marie Wulfram: I'll usually respond from my phone. If I'm out and I'm not like busy or distracted and I do have a moment, I will send that initial text. If it's after hours, usually I'll either respond if I've been on a session, I'll usually say, you know, "I just finished up with the session, but it is after hours, so I'll follow up with you next day." Otherwise, if it's after hours, I'll just follow up in the morning.

Andrew Hellmich: Got it, got it. Changing tact here, before we started recording, I said, "What's your day been like?" We're trying to check the audio, get all that sorted out. And you said, "I've actually been going over my numbers because I knew you're going to ask me about my numbers." What did you find when you went through your numbers? And why don't you look at them so much?

Marie Wulfram: You know, it's really funny, because it's one of those things that I actually really enjoy doing when I do it, but it's never at the top of my list of things to do if I have some time to do something, because, of course, being a creative I'd rather, you know, make social media posts or do something a little more creative. It's rare that I, like, actually want to dive into the more nitty gritty stuff, but once I do, I'm actually really interested. And I do, I love spreadsheets, so that's actually what I did. And I was looking through, like, my average booking rates, and I actually separated it out for my booking rate based on where they came from. So like, I have my Google booking rate, Facebook booking rate, things like that, as well as just the average spend from whichever avenue they come from. So I actually went pretty into the weeds about it. But overall, looking at my booking rate, it's pretty close to 50% overall.

Andrew Hellmich: So that 50% booking rate is that from inquiries, is that leads that have come through Facebook, like, what is that?

Marie Wulfram: That's overall, so inquiries from all sources, versus the ones that have actually booked me for a session.

Andrew Hellmich: Right. So 50% of your inquiries convert to a booking. Awesome. That's awesome. What else did you find?

Marie Wulfram: Um, so I did notice, of course, that family and friend referrals are definitely the top for sure, and their average spend is quite high. It is my highest average spend at 5300.

Andrew Hellmich: Fantastic

Marie Wulfram: Versus like I was very surprised actually to find that my next highest was actually Facebook and Instagram. Facebook being 3700 and Instagram being 3000.

Andrew Hellmich: That's interesting as well. Okay, so Instagram was a little bit less than Facebook, right? Just tell me about the family and friend referrals. Are you doing anything to help encourage those referrals?

Marie Wulfram: I don't, it's been on my to do list to set something up and be a little more proactive about that, but honestly, I feel like a great experience itself is enough. You know, if somebody has a great time, they get great images and they get great products. They're going to talk about you, especially their family and friends, and especially when it comes to pets, because everybody loves talking about their pets at any opportunity that they get.

Andrew Hellmich: For sure. So when you say a great experience, you said three things there. One of them was the shoot. One of them was the products. What was the other one?

Marie Wulfram: The images themselves.

Andrew Hellmich: The images themselves, sure, like your photography is fantastic. So of those three. Well, tell me about the actual shoot experience, because, to me, that would be the one that really gets them excited about the images and what they're going to actually take home. And then talk about later. Are you doing anything? Do you think different to other pet photographers at the session that makes it so good for them?

Marie Wulfram:
You know, I don't think necessarily. I do have an assistant now that comes with me, so she helps take a little bit of the stress off of being able to, like, pose their dogs, and if the dogs are being crazy, she'll run around with them to try to burn some energy. But overall, I think what actually happens is sessions can be a little bit stressful because obviously the pet parents are like, "My dog's being crazy. There's no way we're getting good images. How could we possibly be getting good images when they're being just so crazy and all over the place?" But then they see the images and they realize it's kind of that combination between the experience and the images, that even though their dog was crazy, we worked through it really well. I've had people tell me specifically that they'd love seeing how me and my assistant work together and just make it happen, even with the craziest of dogs. And then to see that, despite all of that, we still got really amazing images. And they always tell me they had a great time, which always surprises me, because sometimes it feels like they're getting super stressed out, and then at the end, they're like, "This was so much fun." And I'm like, "Okay, good, because you seem really stressed."

Andrew Hellmich: Well, I was gonna say maybe it is the images that is, you know, really what's wowing them? But it sounds like they're having fun, even though it doesn't look like it.

Marie Wulfram: Yeah. I mean, I've even had husbands that when they're first rolling up, they're rolling their eyes, and they're like, "I can't believe we're doing this for our dogs." But then at the end, they're like, "You know, I actually had so much fun. This is way more fun than I thought it was going to be." And you know, if I'm impressing the husbands, that's way more than enough for me.

Andrew Hellmich: I agree. I agree. I think if the husband's on board, then you're going to have some good sales. That's so good. Tell me about the way that you're attracting the clients. So it sounds obviously like even though family and friends are getting you the largest sales, is that where most of your clients are coming from?

Marie Wulfram: They're not actually, most of my clients actually come in through event giveaways. And I specifically say event giveaways because I don't do any giveaways on like Facebook or Instagram.

Andrew Hellmich: So what's an event giveaway?

Marie Wulfram: When I'm a vendor. So if I'm I have a booth at an event in person. So I have my products there, I have my images, of course, on display, and then I'll also have a giveaway that people can enter. And that's how I get, honestly, most of my clients.

Andrew Hellmich: Right. So what kind of event?

Marie Wulfram: Usually dog events. So we have a couple of just dog specific events. So we'll have lots of different like treat vendors, bandana makers and all sorts of small businesses that cater specifically to pets. And there's a couple of events throughout the year where we all get together, and it's just like we set up at a park, and it's a lot of fun.

Andrew Hellmich: This is like a flea market sort of a set, up car boot sale sort of thing for pets.

Marie Wulfram: Yeah

Andrew Hellmich: So then, is it the local council that's promoting this, or who promotes it? How do you get people to that event?

Marie Wulfram: It's kind of, it just depends on the event. So there are some that, like the cities will put on and they will be promoting it, which is really good, because we'll get a lot more, you know, visibility and marketing, because they've got the budget. But there are some events, like, I've got one that's coming up pretty soon, actually, where some of us small businesses will just get together and we'll just make up our own events. They're usually a bit smaller, but they're still they're community driven, so usually a lot of the local community comes out and supports we've got a lot of different areas that are very like local focused. A lot of people love shopping and supporting locals. So when there's a bunch of local businesses that get together for a small event, that local community is all for it, and they'll come out.

Andrew Hellmich: So good. So like, could you have, like, someone selling honey next to you and beside them, someone that's, you know, making scarves and selling those, or is it all pet stuff only?

Marie Wulfram: It's usually all pet stuff only. Sometimes we'll get the occasional just kind of like random small business, but most of the time it's pet specific.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, so if you get together then with other small business owners that have an interest in pets or animals. Then, is it up to you, then to run Facebook ads, Instagram, do you all take a take onus on getting people to that event?

Marie Wulfram: Uh huh, yeah, all of us, small businesses will usually have like a, like a group thread where we're talking about, like, marketing ideas and stuff, but most of it is just organic promotion, like on Instagram and a little bit of Facebook. You know, a lot of us do have newsletters, so we'll promote via that as well. But yeah, it's usually pretty organic. Sometimes I'll run ads if I feel like it.

Andrew Hellmich: And do you need a lot of people, a lot of the community, to come through to make those events successful?

Marie Wulfram: Not really, you know, it really just kind of depends on the goal of the event, which most of the time it's just kind of to have fun. When it's the smaller ones like that. It's just a time to have fun. All of the businesses get to get together and interact. Because sometimes, you know, we're all just behind our screens. So it's really nice to just get together and do what we love to do, which is, you know, promote our businesses and meet local dog people.

Andrew Hellmich: Wow. Okay, this is so good. So like, you must have to get permission to run these events too. Like, if you're in a local park, you can't just go and set up there and have a stall.

Marie Wulfram: Yes. So we haven't been able to do any at a park. The couple of events, smaller events like that, that we've done have actually been hosted by a dog friendly bar in our area. So that has actually worked out really in our favor, because she has a great space. She loves supporting small businesses, and she has no problem hosting those events. She doesn't even charge us. She would only charge us if we were to take over the entire venue, but she has a decent sized outdoor space that she lets us use, and it's it's no charge.

Andrew Hellmich: Wow, I guess it's good for her business too, if she's got a dog bar, wow. Okay, so tell me about the stand that you have there. So is there trestle tables supplied? You hire those? Do you show albums like describe your stand for me?

Marie Wulfram: Yeah. So I usually have one, maybe two, uh, just regular, six foot fold out tables. Nice table class. You know, I have a nice display, so it looks nice, but, um, yeah, I just have one to two albums. Um, I'm trying to think of my normal display. I actually had a bunch of stuff stolen recently, so my display is a bit scarce at the moment. I'm still waiting on some new samples, but usually a couple albums, some wall art, and then just some smaller prints, just to help show more images. And then I do have a large like a 10 foot by six foot banner that I hang at the back of my booth, which just has a ton of images that really draws attention. And it says, you know, 'no training required', because it's really not it's my assistants for and then I have a big standing banner, like a retractable banner, that advertises the giveaway and gets people coming in.

Andrew Hellmich: Got it, so are things that competitive with other pet photographers stealing your images? Well, what's going on with, who's stealing your photos?

Marie Wulfram: It's they? No, unfortunately, I had gotten back really late from a session, and I had a bunch of my samples in my car. And the downside is I carry all of my samples in just a regular like rolling suitcase. And since I had gotten back late from the session, I had left that suitcase in the car, and my car had gotten broken into. And of course, whoever it was, they just saw a suitcase and grabbed the suitcase. So yeah, it was useless to them, but it was quite a lot of money that I had to fork out to replace.

Andrew Hellmich: What a nightmare. What a nightmare. Well, that's better than another photographer taking your work.

Marie Wulfram: Yes, absolutely.

Andrew Hellmich: I want to get into the giveaway, but just tell me the location where you're servicing that you're living working. Is it a big population, small population?

Marie Wulfram: It is. And I actually, I don't limit myself to just like my local city. I tell people that I service all of Western Washington, and really honestly, I would travel more than that. It's just outside of that I would have to start charging, like, travel fees and stuff. But I service a lot of like the South Puget Sound area, which would be like Tacoma, Olympia areas like that. And then I also go north, where it's more like Seattle and Bellevue kind of the slightly more, I don't really want to say higher end, but they're more expensive cities to live in. And I've even gone even farther north than that. I sometimes travel up to two hours just to go to clients homes.

Andrew Hellmich: Right. Well, okay, so I'm looking at your Facebook page at the moment, and it says, the big banner says 'Fully booked for outdoor custom sessions, with the exception of rainbow sessions.' So Is that true, or is it just getting too cold to go and do shoots outside?

Marie Wulfram: It's a little bit of both. Generally, when it starts getting later into the year, like I do still have a few more sessions, but generally, November, December, and even, like January, February, it can get really hard to schedule sessions. And so I do take people in during those times, but I do make it very clear that we are going to still shoot no matter what the weather. If it rains, it rains, you know, and it's it's a conversation that we have based on what they're looking for. Because obviously, if they're looking for a warm t-shirt, tank top, dress weather. Now's not the time to do it. So I do take on a limited basis, because the last thing I want is to get to spring with a wait list of 50 people of constantly rescheduling. But I don't book ahead like I do the rest of my calendar.

Andrew Hellmich: Right. Okay, so what do you do in the winter months? Do you photograph indoors, studio?

Marie Wulfram: That's actually something that I'm currently working on. I'm practicing and learning with studio lighting. I do have a studio that I have paid throughout the rest of the year to practice and hopefully start bringing in clients. But it's, it's something that I'm kind of dabbling in at the moment.

Andrew Hellmich: Well, up until now, you've had winter off or limited shoots.

Marie Wulfram: Just limited shoots.

Andrew Hellmich: Wow. Okay, so that's even, like, the business looks even better. So if you introduce studio sessions through the colder months, I mean, yeah, the income is going to go straight up.

Marie Wulfram: That's how I'm hoping to hit that 250.

Andrew Hellmich: What's a rainbow session? Is that an end of life session?

Marie Wulfram: It's an end of life session, yeah.

Andrew Hellmich: Good. Okay, so people want to book those, they can obviously still have them.

Marie Wulfram: Yes, absolutely. I make those available regardless of my schedule and calendar. You know, I have set days that I generally do sessions. But of course, if somebody contacts me and needs one, same day, next day, I'll do my best to fit them in.

Andrew Hellmich: Cool. I want to bring you back to your stand at these an outdoor, they're not necessarily outdoor events? Are they? They're just events.

Marie Wulfram: They usually are. They're usually outdoor.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, so the last thing you said was you had the big pull up banner with details about your giveaway. What is the giveaway? Is it a session and large wall up?

Marie Wulfram: I do a session and an 11 by 14 print that can be either mounted or matted, but no framing. I don't do credits anymore. For me, I like running my business in a way that feels good. If something doesn't feel good, I don't do it. So for me to feel good about doing a giveaway, it had to include something tangible and something decent. So like I when I first started, I was doing a five by seven print, but I started just not feeling good about it. First off, I don't want to put in people's minds five by seven, because it's just too small. And then on top of that, if that ended up being the only thing that they walked away with, I would feel a little just, I wouldn't feel great about it. Versus an 11 by 14, it's a good size. It starts getting people thinking about something bigger than even just an eight by 10. So just putting that in their minds, and planting that seed right from that first moment was really important. And I also mentioned that I only ever do giveaways at events. That's because it gives me a chance to not only talk to them, but they see from the moment that they meet me, that I do products, that I not just about digitals. They can see it. They can feel all the products. And that's honestly sometimes what gets them excited to want to enter the giveaway.

Andrew Hellmich: So do you offer digitals if they want it or want them?

Marie Wulfram: Yes

Andrew Hellmich: Right.

Marie Wulfram: Yeah, they can get digitals on their own. Now I do. My price includes a digital and a print if they want a print, if they don't, it's the same price. So I mean, they're still paying a significant amount, and it saves me money at the end of the day, if they decide they just want the digitals?

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, for sure. So tell me what happens. So you at the expo or at the event, and they see someone walks past you've got your fold out banner. There's giveaway pet photography, 11 by 14 print, like, is there a fish bowl there and a notepad where order, is there iPads? How do they enter this giveaway? And do they know to go and enter it straight away?

Marie Wulfram: They do. It's very clear. I have a little framed QR code. Actually, I just have a small table that sits right next to that banner, and it has a framed print basically that says, scan this to enter the giveaway. And so it has a really big QR code, so it's pretty hard to miss, but I do honestly get a couple people who will step into the tent and ask me, you know, "How do I enter the giveaway?" And of course, I'll direct them over to the QR code. I used to do fill out a piece of paper. I did it one time and realized that a lot of people have handwriting that I just can't read. And then it was also such a pain in the butt to enter all of those in manually into my email list and into my CRM, and I was like, "I am never doing this again." It's all digital for me now.

Andrew Hellmich: So okay, so I scan your QR code. It takes me to, I'm guessing, a landing page. What information are you collecting at that point?

 
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Andrew Hellmich: Marie, you have been amazing. Massive congrats on your success.

Marie Wulfram: Thank you.

Andrew Hellmich: You must have to pinch yourself sometimes, because what a rocket to the top. It's been fantastic talking to you. Thank you for sharing everything you have. I'll link to where the listener can find you in the show notes again, massive thanks.

Marie Wulfram: Thank you for having me. It's been my pleasure.