Why have a professional poker player with the worlds leading online poker training website on a photography business podcast? Because Billy Murphy knows how to build a business from nothing… fast! His number one message in this interview; target influencers, exchange your skills and grow your photography business fast.

If you're a photographer looking to build awareness of you and your brand in your local area, Billy covers step by step how you can do it – no matter how new you are as a professional photographer. He makes it very clear that success and popularity has little to do with skill level and more to do with creative marketing. Then goes on to elaborate about some very cool ideas you can implement in your business.

Here's some more of what we cover:

  • Why you should aim to target influencers and kept in touch with them
  • How you can offer free work to build a successful photography business fast
  • As a professional gambler, Billy shares how every decision you make in your business is a “gamble” and why you need to embrace that – not be scared of it
  • How taking risks can lead to your ultimate success
  • Short term losses can lead to much more work in the long run
  • How to utilise “value exchange” to help your business grow faster
  • In business, every step you take, should be a a matter of finding an edge and using it to your advantage
  • As a start up photographer, you should never waste “free time” – shoot, shoot, shoot
  • If you're not a blogger and don't enjoy blogging, don't do it. Focus on other things to bring in work or to create content
  • Strategise to get you noticed on the biggest blogs in your niche or where your potential clients are
  • Why you never ever want to be known as the discount photographer
  • How to create situations where everything you do raises your value
  • Why tying your name to influencers increases your credibility and how you can do it
  • Perceived value is what you need to be aiming for with your photography business
  • Billy insists the photography business is not saturated if you know what techniques you can use to market your business
  • Why you should always be aiming to think outside the box to market your business and work
  • How you can use journalists to create stories featuring your work and what you do
  • It's easy to do things nobody else is doing but you have to have the courage to give it a go
  • Understanding that some campaigns will work, some won't – but if you try something crazy, you will get noticed

Following the interview, you should be equipped with a stack of new marketing ideas to grow your business and get noticed in your community. You may not have the courage to do something “crazy” right off the bat but hopefully you'll have the tenacity to target some influential people and create opportunities to get noticed.

At the very least, you'll know there is never an excuse to not be shooting to grow your business. Whether  it's for paid work or in exchange for services, you need to be shooting.

Billy Murphy Podcast Interview

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 Billy where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for including:

  • Why you absolutely need to have a call to action on every page of your website and what it should be
  • A cool Adwords tip to make it easy for potential clients to call you
  • Why you should have videos on your about page if you want to see a dramatic increase in conversions and what you should be putting in those videos
  • How to reach out to those influential people in your area and start working with them
  • Personalised video messages and how you can use them to really boost conversions
  • Why you should make it easy for visitors to your website to see your pricing
  • How to prioritize your goals, not be distracted and reach your success potential

Billy Murphy Podcast Interview

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview with Billy, 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 he had to share? 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 Billy your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically and let him know you're listening: https://photobizx.com/billy

Win A New Camera Strap from Lucky Straps

In the last episode I mentioned a camera strap giveaway from Lucky Camera Straps in Australia. It looks like I gave out the incorrect URL so if you'd still like the chance to win the strap, head over to luckystraps.com.au/collections and let me know the colour strap you'd like to have for your camera and the first person to mention the colour I have here will receive this one.

Leave your favourite colour combo in the comments below or send me a tweet – https://twitter.com/andrewhellmich

The first person to list the colour strap I have here will receive it.

Lucky Camera Straps

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 there were two great reviews so a big thanks to Dan McCreary of http://www.danmccreary.com in the United States and Graham Leggate of http://perthprophoto.net in Western Australia.

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.

Photo Biz Xposed iTunes Reviews

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.

Get in Touch or Leave a Voicemail Message

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!

Impact Images Model Portfolio photography

One of the photos from the model portfolio shoot last week.

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Forever Jobless – the website

Billy's NEW Podcast – Forever Jobless

Billy Murphy on Facebook

Billy on Twitter – @BillyMurphy

EV Millionaire's Math

Bootscaling Blog Post: The Exact Strategy My Startup is Using to Generate Leads

Australian rules and regulations regarding Trademarks – thanks to Chris Gillham of All Reasons Photography for sending through the link.

Impact Images Model Portfolio photography

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