Spencer is a Brooklyn-based wedding photographer, designer and blogger. He's been running his own photography business for 12 years and before that, ran a design and brand agency.
Through Ground Glass, a dead-set must read blog for photographers serious about succeeding, Spencer teaches how to build a brand like a large agency, within the real world constraints of a small photography business budget.
Here’s some more of what we cover:
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 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.
Budgets are the most made up thing in the world
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Spencer 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 Spencer your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically show you’re listening: https://photobizx.com/tweet
Matt and Katie a Looking for Help
Late last week I received an email from Tom at Tom K Photo in Colorado USA asking if I'd heard about a fundraiser for the struggling Matt and Katie.
I hadn't then but have seen and read a lot since. I've interviewed Matt and Katie on the podcast in episode 17 and Matt again in episode 75 as part of a Q&A session with Steve Sapporito. Both Matt and Katie were extremely giving in the interviews as they are in everything they do – now they are asking for our help as a community of photographers.
You can read the full story here: https://www.gofundme.com/mattkatie/ but in brief, Katie was in a terrible accident a year ago where she was caught between her parked car and another reversing in a car park.
Since then, Katie hasn't been able to work and Matt tried but can't run the business on his own. They have mounting debt, no income and are struggling.
If you want to help, head to the link above and make a donation. At the time of writing, photographers from around the world have raised $37,000 which is fantastic.
Small Changes to the Website
There are a couple of small changes to the website that should make finding what yore after a little easier.
You'll now find a search bar and a members login in the footer area of every page of the site.
Try the search bar if you're looking for a particular guest or topic rather than searching through page after page of interviews.
Premium members can still access all the premium content via the min menu but the login area, now on every page, should speed things up for you .
If you have any other recommendations to make the site more user friendly, let me know at andrew@photobizx.com.
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Thank you!
Thank you again for listening to the show and thanks Spencer for being an awesome guest!
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!
That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
Thanks and speak soon
Andrew
Another great interview today, Spencer had some invaluable information to share.
Kudos to the discussion about Matt & Katie at the beginning, I have donated a Portrait Session to the Instagram auction going on to help raise funds for them. I share the very same feelings as you about the situation.
Wow, you were quick out of the blocks today Jack!
Glad you enjoyed the interview, hope you found something worth using or trying in your business.
I didn’t know about the Instagram auction for Matt and Katie – do you have a link I can add to this post?
And good on you for gutting involved too.
Yep lots of good things in there, I had to listen to the bit twice about presenting the PDF (because I usually just email the Pricing PDF to enquirers when they ask) but going to explore other ways of presenting it now so I have more control, is just a bit hard to do!
Sure thing the Instagram Auction can be found here – https://instagram.com/mattkatieinstaauction/ It has just started up tonight actually and will run until Thursday.
Good one – love to hear what you come up with and how it goes. I still believe getting to talk to the prospective client is the best way to start building that trust and if you can somehow start that with an email that leads to a phone number, a call then an appointment, you’re winning.
Thanks for the link – some great stuff and generous photographers putting things up for auction there!
Yeah I do convert enquiries to meetings often, I just am not a great phone person. I am very personable but I find it very .. hard to get great momentum (unless its booking without meeting first). So will tease it out, might just more have a link for them to go to the PDF (rather than attaching it) so I can track the usage of the page/download and see how that goes.
Great auction indeed with lots of good things!
Another idea to get the ball rolling and build momentum is to have your potential client add their email address to get access to your PDF.
Setting up an email auto responder is a simple way to do this and you can automate the process (easily) until you get a reply then take over as you.
Cant reply to your last one for some reason! Ahh yes I dont actually give the PDF out until the submit an enquiry and I start up the conversation with them (in the same response I talk about having an in person meeting).
I meant more, once you send that PDF back the conversation can either move on or stop.. it is good in terms of not continuing with those that arent interested for whatever reason, but it seems like if you can engage them further (without it feeling like an autopilot reply) that you can then convert the enquiry. I just have a starting price on my site to save some time on those who dont have the budget, tho I find many people dont read it anyway!
Lots of good chatter here. Look forward to the next one 🙂
Sounds like you and I employ similar strategies Jack – except I use an auto responder for the initial part then take over personally once I get my first reply.
If you want to see exactly what I mean, feel free to check my prices/autorespnder at: http://impact-images.com.au/weddings
Agreed too, it’s funny how you can list something on your website, make it easy to see and find but visitors miss it completely.
This was a fantastic interview! He really tells you how to add value compared to the cheaper photographers in your market. Everything Spencer said made 100% sense. I recently made a pdf pricing guide based on the one Kurt Mastin graciously provided, and its the exact opposite. Pricing starts at the low end and keeps going up. Having thought that was a proven method I went with it and did find that emails started to slow down but didnt link the two together. Ill have to rearrange the pricing guide this weekend and get it back up.
Thank you for your knowledge Spencer!
I think you’ve nailed the perfect way to take things from the interviews and adjust and tweak them to make them yours Raymond. Love it!
This is why your podcast is so important. There is no “magic formula” to owning a successful wedding photography studio. You have to stand back and take in everyones advice and determine what will work best for you and your ideal clients. Ill listen to a photographer for an hour and 55 mins of that may not pertain to me and my clients at all but they will say one thing that will change the way I run my business.
Amen brother!
Thanks Raymond! Appreciate the kind words, and glad to be of use!
Wow – Spencer really brought together so many other great editions of this podcast and reassured me of so many things that I have suspected (but not put into practice) for quite a while.
His strategies for presenting the pricing from low to high, explaining the breakdown to the client and how to talk about your pricing is just amazing. So clear and well informed.
Too much information in this to process in just a week. I will have to listen to this again and will surely put so much of it into practice.
Thanks Spencer.
Again, Andrew, great interviewing skills! Thanks 😀
So good to read your comments, thanks Owen!
One thing – did you mean low to high or high to low?
I agree too, Spencer has a special “knack” when it comes to communicating with clients.
Hope you grabbed his ebook and enjoy the 2nd listen.
Ha! Yes Andrew – Sorry – I did mean pricing High to Low.
On a second listen I really appreciated the comments about numbers being so arbitrary. I’m off to restructure my packages totally after this podcast.
Such great premium content this week! THANKS!!!
Good one! 🙂
Much appreciated, Owen!
This was an incredible episode! And perfect timing. We are right in the middle of redoing our pricing based on the ebook, and this was the perfect compliment to it. I love everything he was saying about asking questions in the consultation, and using the answers as well as the reactions to build trust. It was also interesting to hear how he does his a la carte pricing. I might try using packages, and a la carte with different clients to see which one I like best. A/B testing in person!
Good to hear about the timing Chris, love it when things like that happen.
Make sure you also check the download offered by Kirk Mastin a few episodes ago – he has a gorgeous PDF price list that you can use for inspiration if you’re going that way. It’s be worth having a listen to that episode too, Kirk talked a bit about pricing and his price list.
Cool idea too about the split testing with your pricing. Love to hear which one comes out the winner when you’ve made a decision.
Thanks Chris! Let me know how it goes if you try out the a la carte approach! Would love to hear your thoughts.
Wow – Spencer man you could talk under water… that was a fantastic episode, although I have to listen to it a few more times.. also very timely for me also, I have just put up my prices and included two packages, but after listening to this podcast I decided to add a 3rd high priced package to push along my 2nd package which I feel is the one i would really like to push, so thanks for the advice and I have downloaded your ebook for more treats..pp
Hi praise, Paul. Couldn’t be happier to hear it. Thank you! Let me know how things go for you!
Hey Spencer / Andrew
Really enjoyed this episode as pricing has been an issue for me with being compared to the nearest photographer etc but from this interview I really got the idea of making clients “feel” more and will embrace the challenge to be more different and unique.
I did download the Bulletproof Pricing Guide – Thank you Spencer!
Andrew – I listen to your episodes as often as I can, mostly when I’m driving to a client for a wedding consultation or to a wedding, as I’m in the car I haven’t been able to leave a comment when it was fresh in my mind. Please know I really appreciate all the effort you go to as your’e giving business gold in every episode! Thank you!
Love that you enjoyed and are able to use what you heard from Spencer in this interview Tim.
I reckon a lot of photographers are struggling with with the whole price comparison thing and if you have some way of separating yourself from the ‘crowd’ you’ll definitely be in front.
No problem with the comments Tim, I’m often in the same boat when listening to other podcasts – I’m happy to know you’re there and listening.
Hope 2015 is an amazing year for you!
Thanks Tim! Hope it will prove helpful and you have a great year!