Is photography your passion, your life? Is your plan to have a successful wedding or portrait photography business? Are you already on your way?
How would you like to fast track your progress? Seriously. You can get where you want to be faster than you ever would on your own.
Join me, as I interview the most successful photographers from around the world to uncover the facts about running a wedding and portrait photography business for profit. You’ll hear photographers share more than you’ve ever heard them share before.
Photographers like Jonas Peterson, Fer Juristi, Sue Bryce, Ryan Brenizer, Peter Hurley, Gabe McClintock, Luisa Dunn, Ana Brandt, Ian Weldon, Nordica Photography, Jerry Ghionis plus more.
Listen in as photographers reveal exactly what they do in their business and how they do it.
Build a profitable wedding & portrait photography business
You can hear the latest episode right here, right now – click play in the player below!
Learn the very things they wish they knew ‘back then’ that they have learnt the hard way and know so well today – how to attract a constant flow of clients who want to pay for their photography.
Discover the exact way to market, advertise, and promote to attract wedding and portrait clients every day. We discuss pricing, photography packages, sales techniques, to add on, up-sell or not, what to do when the phone rings and what the experts do when it doesn’t.
Learn what they do from the initial consultation right through to the album or prints sales session to pick up and beyond.
Learn from successful operators exactly how they incorporate social media, what works, what doesn’t. You’ll recognise some photographers by name, some you won’t – every one though, will be operating a successful photography business today.
You get to learn from home based photographers and those with commercial premises. Photographers that shoot in Studios and others that solely work on location or outdoors.
Other guests include leaders in the fields of social media, off line marketing, advertising, branding, accounting, internet marketing – all offering real advice and relevant content aimed squarely at being a successful photographer.
If you are serious about your photography business and want to book more clients, I 100% recommend you listen to PhotoBizX – SugarBox Studios
If you are a Wedding or Portrait Photographer, you NEED to listen to this podcast. Simple as that. Whatever level you’re at, however long you’ve been doing it, there’s a friendly Aussie bloke who is pulling for you and wants to help you be a success.
It’s a goldmine of tips, strategies, inspiration and advice. And there are now 200+ episodes to go back and rediscover. Everything from branding, marketing, sales strategies, SEO, blogging, writing, and of course MAKING MORE MONEY!
Now, there IS a premium version with even more content, but DO NOT LET THIS SCARE YOU! It will be the wisest business expense you could possibly make in my opinion. Unless you don’t have a camera. If that’s the case, you should probably buy a camera first… The premium membership offers a ton of extra resources including possibly the most valuable of all: a private members-only facebook group, populated by all us premium members plus a ton of the podcast quests too.
Do yourself a favour and listen now, then do what I did and sign up for the premium membership before the end of your first episode!
Damian Blacklock, Damian Blacklock Photography
690: Tara Shuler – When Mum Wants $5,000 in Photography Wall Art and Dad Wants to Leave
Tara Shuler is a sales trainer, author and founder of Convo Control who believes photographers spend too much time explaining their packages and too little time asking questions. In this interview, we explore why sending a price list can stall a promising enquiry, what’s behind “we need to think about it”, and the awkward situation where Mum wants $5,000 in wall art while Dad has no idea what the photos cost. Tara’s approach centres on understanding why clients want the photos in the first place. We cover qualifying free-session leads, following up without another “just checking in” message, and uncovering objections before the sales appointment. Some of her suggestions pushed me outside my comfort zone—and will have you questioning whether your conversations help clients see the value or simply leave them comparing prices.
689: Pipi Diamond – Can You Sell Your Photography Business—or Will You Have to Close It?
Pipi Diamond of Soulful Photography in the San Francisco Bay Area has spent 12 years building her pet and family photography business. Now she wants to sell it—and she’s candid about why. With three photographers trained, annual gross revenue listed at US$139,000 and an asking price reduced from US$75,000 to US$50,000 after losing her studio lease, Pipi shares what preparing a photography business for sale actually looks like. We cover what prospective buyers want, the staff and systems she’s put in place, a charity auction strategy that brought in around a third of her sessions, and why delegating the photography hasn’t removed the stress of ownership. Whether selling is on your radar or years away, this conversation raises a question worth considering now: what would someone actually be buying if you stepped away?
688: Andrew Ferdinands – How To Get 80% of Your Photography Work Through Referrals
Andrew “Ferdi” Ferdinands has photographed more than 3,000 events over 17 years and built an event photography business bringing in around $200,000 a year. At its busiest, his team covered roughly 400 events in a year, including 44 in one month. What caught my attention is that Ferdi says 80% of his work comes from referrals and word of mouth, even though he rarely asks for them. He believes the way a photographer makes people feel on the day has a lot to do with whether they book again or recommend you. It’s why he looks for people skills first when bringing photographers onto his team. We get into how he manages a pool of more than 30 photographers, what happens after a shoot, his straightforward pricing, and how he’s using AI to cut down the admin. If you photograph events, weddings or families, there’s plenty here to consider about the experience you give clients before they’ve even seen their photos.
687: Ina Jalil – The Pre-Shoot Consultation That Raised Her Average Sale from $600 to $2,800
Ina Jalil is the photographer behind Ina J Photography, a multiple six-figure pet photography business in Canberra, Australia. Since her first appearance on the podcast in 2022, she has photographed more than 1,000 dogs, grown annual revenue to around $305,000 and increased her average sale from roughly $600 to $2,800. In this interview, Ina shares how she transformed a disappointing book project—with 48 sessions and just over $20,000 in sales—into a second project that generated more than $72,000 from 26 sessions, with 25 of those clients purchasing. She also breaks down a Facebook campaign that turned a $689 ad spend into more than $33,000 in sales and explains why pre-shoot consultations, transparent pricing and better client qualification have become non-negotiable. We also explore how Ina uses AI as a virtual studio manager to review her consultation and sales calls, identify missed questions, build an objection bank, draft client emails and help improve her marketing. It’s an honest look at testing ideas, learning from campaigns that fail and building repeatable systems that allow a photographer to shoot fewer sessions while generating higher sales.
TPX30: Michelle Szpak – The business of motorcycle and automotive photography
Michelle Szpak of www.szpak.co.uk has been shooting for over 15 years and specialises in motorcycle and automotive photography. Not the classifieds type of [...]
TPX29: Ashley Jones – Love not lost through meaningful photography
Ashley Jones is the driving force behind Love Not Lost - an organisation supporting people in grief and helping people heal by [...]
TPX28: Dan Westergren – Travel photography for the National Geographic
Dan Westergren of www.danwestergren.com and I were recently exchanging emails about his PhotoBizX premium membership. It turns out he has a love [...]
TPX27: Pye Jirsa – Creativity, business, TikTok and education
I recently asked inside the PhotoBizX members Facebook group for suggestions of creative photographers to interview for the podcast. Past interview guest, [...]