FULL TRANSCRIPT: Please note this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.

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You’re listening to the Portrait System podcast.

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So for me to actually have to be bold and to have a voice and say, you know what, this is what I’m doing, here’s the experience, here’s the amazing products I offer. It took a ton of courage for me, and it took a lot of listening to Sue and her building me up as a human.

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This is the Portrait System Podcast, a show that helps portrait photographers and people hoping to become one. Navigate the world of photography, business, money and so much more. We totally keep it real. We share stories about the incredible ups and the very difficult downs when running a photography business. I’m your host, Nikki Closser, and the point of this podcast is for you to learn actionable steps that you can take to grow your own business and also to feel inspired and empowered by the stories you hear.

This week on the Portraits System, my guest is Leslie with Leslie Q Photography and she has our business in Indiana.

00:00:55:05 – 00:01:25:22

Leslie’s Studio is actually in a barn on her property that her husband built out for her and it is such a cool space. Leslie chatted with me all about the different genres she photographs, such as families, personal branding and seniors, and her focus is on magazine style portraits. Leslie used to do most of her photoshoots outdoors, but she talks about how she gets her clients, even high school seniors, to want to shoot in her studio. We had a lot of fun chatting during Leslie’s interview, and I’m excited to introduce her to you. Okay, let’s get started with Leslie Quirke from Leslie Q Photography.

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Hey Leslie, thanks for being a guest here on the Portrait System podcast. How are you?

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Hi, Nikki. Thanks for having me. I’m doing well. Thank you.

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Good, good, good, good. You are in the Midwest, in Indiana, am I right?

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Yes, ma’am, that is correct.

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I don’t think we’re too far from each other then.

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No, I am about 30 minutes from Lake Michigan. So we are literally the the line is right down the road.

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So. Okay. Very cool. And then as far as your town, are you a smaller town or larger town?

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Oh, girl, I’m a very, very small town. So I want to speak out to all those people who are like, gosh, I live in a small town. No one’s going to pay my prices because that is exactly where I was. September of last year, we have I believe it’s 2,000 people in our town. Okay. Yeah.

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So that’s a very small town.

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Yes. And it’s it’s a very it’s farm community where blue collar kind of people. We just live a very simple life around here.

00:02:29:04 – 00:02:39:06

Well, I noticed in one of your posts, you in the Facebook group, in the portraits and Facebook group, you had mentioned that you had a new studio built out and that your husband added it to your barn. Is that right?

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That’s correct, yes. Tell us.

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About that.

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So I was actually working. Now I have two children. I’ve got two girls. They are 11 and 13 and I have two cats and a dog. And every photoshoot that I would have in my home, I would have to clean top to bottom. It was awful. I was stressed. I was exhausted by the time they got here. So I think finally it was about 2018. We decided to go ahead and add on to my husband’s pole burn. And so he did.

00:03:13:28 – 00:03:19:26

He added an addition out the back for me, and two thirds of that addition is all my space. Wow.

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Leslie, how long were you shooting in your house before you? It just became too much for you.

00:03:24:05 – 00:03:30:06

Let’s see. It had to have been about three years, I would say.

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Yeah, that’s quite a long time to be working in your home like that and having people come into your home.

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Yeah. And I felt like to be a professional, I needed to, like, take my kids out, kick my husband out, kick the animals out. It was not convenient, so. But you did it like.

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And that’s the thing. You know, you can make it work in your house. Yes. It definitely comes with some sacrifices. And some people can’t do it for quite as long as you did before going insane. But it is possible to get started.

00:03:58:15 – 00:04:14:10

Absolutely. Yeah. That’s how I got started. Like I didn’t know I loved studio work until I started shooting and like with, you know, my lights and my backdrops and my props and. Yeah. So. Okay. Most definitely.

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So tell people just kind of the genre you shoot and what you focus on most.

00:04:19:23 – 00:04:50:21

Well, it’s very crazy. So I actually and I don’t know if you’re this way, too. I know you have little kids. So as my kids get older, I kind of get away from photographing the younger children. So I started out doing I thought I wanted to be a newborn photographer. Right. I love Kelly Brown and I loved her work. I got all the things, all the props and realized they are so much work and so backbreaking and it was hot and it was just a long day, so I kind of let that go.

00:04:50:23 – 00:05:22:02

A few years ago only did you know a few here and there. Then I really focused on children and milestones. A lot of it. I did a lot of toddlers, and then this last year I really started transitioning and had tons of high school seniors, which I love. I love high school seniors. And then I also, once I got into suits, pricing and structure and everything, I tried to kind of, you know, go towards personal branding and photographing women.

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So it’s kind of just been this like, progressive change of who I want to be when I grow up.

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Nice. All right. So. But for now, it’s more portraits in studio work. So you shoot it all outside anymore?

00:05:36:27 – 00:06:11:23

I do. High school seniors, I mean, they still want to be outside. I have actually, especially around here because we have all four seasons. I have been trying to kind of talk them into more portrait work and I’m still building my portfolio like I started in 2014. But now that I’ve been learning and growing Lisa and learning her posing methods, like I’m changing my portfolio, I’m changing my pictures on my website. So I’m kind of trying to transition people here into more studio work because I love it.

00:06:12:05 – 00:06:45:00

Yeah, I kind of had the same experience with seniors, with studio work, where they wanted to be outside. But I went, I talked him into I’d be like, What if we just you because you have 5 hours? I’m like, What if we just do one or two inside? And they always said, yes, not one person or maybe maybe one said no. Yeah, but it’s interesting because they always ended up choosing several of those in-studio photos. I think they just don’t know what to expect or something. I don’t know if they think it’s going to be like the old school, you know, school portraits sort of thing.

00:06:45:06 – 00:06:46:18

Yeah, absolutely.

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Yeah. So I think it’s important for us to show them.

00:06:51:08 – 00:07:00:29

You know, some of these really modern contemporary model like in studio shots so that they can kind of, you know, understand what it is.

00:07:01:13 – 00:07:32:24

Exactly. Exactly. You know, around here, I don’t know if it’s the same where you are, but, you know, the lifestyle photography is huge. You know, people love it. But I truthfully, I love fine art portraits in the studio and I love that, you know, just Sue’s style. And I feel like if we can, like you said, if we can just show them what it actually looks like, then they’ll want it. You want the experience. You want to get hair and makeup. And I’m actually so excited because I’m finally able to do that this year.

00:07:32:26 – 00:07:34:03

So awesome.

00:07:34:21 – 00:07:56:12

And I love to. It’s like just because everyone else in your town or whatever, you know, only offers the lifestyle outdoor, it doesn’t mean you have to. Exactly. I almost feel like it’s to your advantage if other people don’t because then, you know, if it catches on, you’re the photographer that people want. So I think there’s definitely a strength in being the only one.

00:07:56:22 – 00:08:27:06

Yes. And you know, I want to photograph, you know, I’m 37. I want women to want to come to me to celebrate themselves, celebrate, you know, who we are at 40 and who we are at 50 and who we are at 60 and 70. And I just had my aunt yesterday. She came out to me and she’s like, I really want to be photographed in that robe you just bought. You know, I got the big, beautiful rose, and I’m like, Let’s do it. You’re beautiful. She’s like, But my wrinkles, I’m like, I got you. I got you.

00:08:27:08 – 00:08:29:14

You’re ready. And, you know. Very cool.

00:08:29:27 – 00:08:40:29

Very cool. Well, let’s back up a little bit because like you said, you didn’t always shoot in studio. And did you star as a shoot and burn photographer or how did you even get started to begin with?

00:08:41:09 – 00:09:20:05

Yes. So weird thing. I was just researching some of my old like, oh, my gosh, pictures from when I very first started. Like I scrolled way down on my Facebook feed and I actually started out with a box and four by six portraits, and that’s how I would present their photos to them. That’s how I started out. Yeah. Yes. And then somewhere along the way, I just decided to do what everybody else did. And yeah, it was $25 for a digital image, $300 for the gallery, and my session fee was $150.

00:09:20:17 – 00:09:21:04

Wow.

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For all of that work.

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For all of that work. I think I really feel like the past two years I made maybe like 20, 30,000 gross total working all year. It was it was painful. Yeah, yeah, that sounds painful.

00:09:38:00 – 00:09:50:12

So when you decided you were going to make this, like, transition into, you know, really charging a sustainable amount for your business, an industry standard, take me through that process of how you did that.

00:09:50:28 – 00:10:23:19

So my husband, he is he’s a linemen electrician, right? So he’s always been like the breadwinner. And this was always kind of just my thing. And until the past couple of years, I didn’t know that I would be, you know what I am today? I just didn’t know where the business would go. So it was probably about 2000…. Well, I joined Sue Bryce in 2021 and basically I just drove right into it.

00:10:23:21 – 00:11:04:11

I just, I don’t know, I just transitioned and I just didn’t look back. So I was kind of one of those crazy things. And it was weird because I was still taking clients that I had already booked on my old pricing. So it was very confusing to try and like separate the two out and remember who was on my new pricing, who was on the old pricing. That part was kind of hard. And then I would transition my past clients to my new my new method, and I’m not going to lie like quite a few of them have come with me, which has been amazing just because we’re friends, you know what I mean? Like, I try to be friends with my clients and I’m like.

00:11:04:29 – 00:11:31:03

So totally. Okay. So a lot of people will say things like, you know, they’re really nervous about kind of changing into this new pricing structure where it’s quite a bit more than they were charging before. Yeah. And people are really, really worried about how the past clients are going to take it. And, you know, just the overall, I’m not going to have any clients anymore. Did you feel like that when you were going through this?

00:11:31:12 – 00:12:02:23

Absolutely. I was terrified. Like I mean, I’m kind of a very like easygoing person and I don’t do a lot of drama. You know, that’s just me. And so for me to actually have to be bold and to have a voice and say, you know what, this is what I’m doing. Here’s the experience, here’s the amazing products I offer. It took a ton of courage for me and it took a lot of listening to Sue and her building me up as a human. Yes, it changed my life just as a person.

00:12:02:25 – 00:12:36:15

I mean, I tell my children some of her things and, you know, you get us through certain situations. But I was terrified. And the first not even joking. My very first client that I converted, she has been with me. It was their adoption journey. I got to follow them through their adoption before their adoption, and now they’re going to adopt again. They’ve just been amazing people. And when I transitioned, I called her and I talked to her for like an hour and a half and told her all about the new changes and all of the new products.

00:12:36:17 – 00:12:54:01

She was so excited for me. I mean, it just made my soul feel good. And do you know, that was my first my very first sale, and they spent $3,700 with me. Wow. The first one and my top sales so far. So. Wow. Yeah.

00:12:54:03 – 00:13:08:10

Very cool. Very cool. Now, there are like some people feel like they need to make this big announcement that my prices are changing and that sort of thing. Is that something that you did or did you just kind of.. No. Tell me about that.

00:13:08:25 – 00:13:37:14

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So there was a few touchy because I live in a very small town. It’s like I told a few other people. It’s like Cheers, right? Everybody knows your name here. I know a lot of my clients. They know each other. It was very weird because there was two clients. One of them had booked with me on my old pricing, the other one on the new and they knew each other and they worked together. So the one was like, I got all these pictures for $400 and she’s like, Wait a minute,

00:13:39:17 – 00:14:11:13

Oops. That’s not. Yeah. So but truth be told, she was just one of those. I tried to contact her so many times and she just refused to talk on the phone like I tried. And I sent her my pricing and I tried to, like, relay an email. I wanted to talk to her, but she just didn’t want to talk. So, I even brought my products to the shoot with me, brought her to my car, said, This is what I’m offering. And she’s like, so you don’t you don’t do digitals anymore. And I’m like, Oh. So yeah, it was it was a struggle.

00:14:11:28 – 00:14:13:14

But, you know, and I.

00:14:13:16 – 00:14:18:03

Love that you you kind of held the line, you know, kept your boundaries in place because,

00:14:19:24 – 00:14:52:05

I mean, if someone had said to me, this is my pricing structure, you know, you contacted me after I changed my pricing structure. I mean, I’m not going to be like an asshole about it. I’d be like, all right, tell me about it, you know? And I don’t know that I would want to work with someone anyway who had that sort of just attitude about it. It just makes you wonder if down the line, you know, what if? Like, what are they going to complain about their photos? Are they going to have attitude if something goes wrong? Like, I don’t know. I feel like it’s kind of like let them go with a love situation at that point.

00:14:52:07 – 00:14:58:03

Yeah. You know what, though? They actually they spent 1800 dollars with me. I mean, there you go.

00:14:58:05 – 00:15:01:02

Okay. I misunderstood. I thought you ended up now.

00:15:01:18 – 00:15:25:24

Oh, yeah. They they went through with it. I mean, she just she just, you know, that she was used to my old pricing, and I could not contact her. I could not, like, verbally get in touch with her, so. Okay. And then once she came to my car, I did explain things there and then I did the in-person sale. I actually went to their house and did the sale there. Yeah.

00:15:26:10 – 00:16:00:10

Wow. All right. Sorry, but I. Yeah, I totally misunderstood what you said. Okay. Gotcha. Okay, so you held your ground and they. And it went fine, and then she’s spent 1800. That’s fantastic. Okay, very cool. Very cool. Okay. Because I think sometimes people think like they need to announce that their prices are changing. And I just I don’t think that’s necessary. It’s not like we see, you know, big companies like Michael Kohrs, you know. Oh, my. Purses are going up and like people just don’t do that.

00:16:00:17 – 00:16:11:10

I mean, of course, if you have a membership or something, they have to let you know they’re going to be charging you more like Netflix. I got an email from Netflix not too long ago saying that they, you know, they’re upping the price or whatever.

00:16:11:20 – 00:16:12:05

Right.

00:16:12:07 – 00:16:34:09

That, of course, you need to know. But it’s not something that you need to announce. Now, one thing that I found super helpful when I was back when I was raising my prices is using gift vouchers for for those previous clients. I could say, hey, you, next time they inquire like, hey, just so you know, things have changed a little bit, but because you’re such a loyal client, I’m giving you a $300 gift voucher or whatever.

00:16:34:22 – 00:17:08:04

Oh, absolutely. I did that with probably I would say at least 50% of my bookings when I converted. I mean, I just started with this method last September. So this is all still very new to me and I’m still like, you know, making it through and gift vouchers. I felt when I did not feel I was that value yet, you know, it helped kind of transition me to that point where I’m like, nope, my session fee is 250, you know, I mean, like I can say it now and I don’t feel guilt and shame about it.

00:17:08:06 – 00:17:09:28

It is what it is. Yes.

00:17:10:07 – 00:17:39:09

So I’m so glad to hear you say that because I want people to hear it. I want people to hear that. Yes, at first it’s sometimes for some people I know for me and for you, like you said, it can be a little scary and nerve wracking and there’s a little bit of fear involved in all of that. But if you push through it and just hold your ground, if you have a beautiful portfolio, if you’re providing great services, it’s going to be okay. And then eventually you get to the point where it’s not so scary to set your prices anymore. It just is what it is without emotion attached to it.

00:17:39:16 – 00:17:46:09

Yeah, and it’s confidence. Oh, my gosh. Sue in building your confidence, man? She’s got a gift. I tell you.

00:17:46:18 – 00:17:47:24

It’s so true.

00:17:48:02 – 00:18:00:00

It’s weird. Like, it’s it’s crazy, but it works. Like, when you are confident in yourself, people are confident in you. It’s just that give and take and ebb and flow and it just, it works.

00:18:00:04 – 00:18:32:19

Yeah. And I think having your, your confidence, feeling the confidence is one thing, but also having like a confident kind of response or a rebuttal or pitch or something. So like for example, I do personal branding and if someone says I just want, you know, how much for one photo, I say, Oh, you know what? My small package is five photos. But I’ll tell you, it’s so important to have more than just one photo for your business. One photo gets stale and boring, and when you have more photos to swap out for your profile picture, for your email signature for LinkedIn, you’re going to get more traction to your social media.

00:18:32:26 – 00:19:06:20

Every time you swap out one of your photos, that’s when you get the most traction. And it also allows you to show different sides of yourself. And not to mention you’re going to have your hair and makeup done anyway. I’ll help you pick out the outfits. Like, why not? You’re going to be here. Like it’s just more helpful for you in the long run to have more photos like that. And that’s not exactly what I say. I mix it up a little bit, but if you can have some sort of whatever that rebuttal is going to be like, oh, you don’t do just digitals anymore, come up with a response for that, like, Oh, isn’t it so great, I’m going to help you order your prints so you don’t even have to deal with it.

00:19:07:01 – 00:19:17:09

Like, when’s the last time you were really ordered prints for your wall? Right. I’m going to help you through that whole process. So it’s so easy for you and you’re going to have, like, prints forever. Absolutely. You know, things like that.

00:19:17:21 – 00:19:48:09

Yes. And I got to tell you, your class is amazing. Like if anyone’s on the fence, I just I love that it’s in bite size chunks, like I can go in there. And because now that the studio is done, I do want to get more into personal branding. And I’ve actually booked my first two bookings of this year were men, you know, personal branding guys that wanted to come in and get that magazine style. They saw one and the other one liked it. And so it’s a cool transition. It’s very fun, too.

00:19:48:11 – 00:20:09:00

It’s I don’t know. I’m like you, though. I’ve got kids. I want to be home with my kids at night and I’m kind of really trying to hone in to getting my clients into the studio so I can just be with them in the evenings and go to softball and have my business during the day like everybody else. So. Oh yeah, totally.

00:20:09:27 – 00:20:43:14

Totally. And I talk about that in the course too, as my personal branding fits in my lifestyle and why it’s so important to choose a genre that really makes sense for you and your lifestyle. And some people love shooting weddings and love working the weekends. And even with seniors, it’s weekends, it’s evenings, you know, high school seniors, because most of the time they’re in school. And same with families. It’s really hard to get the kids out of school and parents taking a day off. That’s not to say that you can’t make that happen, that you can’t be, you know, kind of a regular business hours sort of business.

00:20:43:16 – 00:21:08:06

You know, eventually when you you get that reputation, it’s like, this is when I shoot either bucket or don’t. But choosing a genre that lights you up that you could excited about, but also that works for your lifestyle. Oil is so important. And it sounds like you’re realizing that now, you know, with your kids, I’m sure they’re 11 and 13. There’s after school activities and they want to hang out with their friends and you got to drive them everywhere.

00:21:08:08 – 00:21:40:09

It’s like.. Yeah. They’re texting and, you know, like, I love this methodology. Work smarter, not harder. Like, totally. You know, we can have these personal branding sessions and then I love to try and talk them into doing a glamour shoot like the glamour shots, you know what I mean? You know, you don’t feel glamorous images at the end and a beautiful dress. Or if they wanted to wear my beautiful robe, I love popping those in at the end because it makes them feel confident and beautiful and it’s a little icing on the cake for them.

00:21:40:23 – 00:21:47:24

Totally. It’s such a great way to upsell. Yes, it really is. Like if someone’s on the fence about the middle package.

00:21:47:26 – 00:21:48:13

Or.

00:21:48:15 – 00:22:04:07

The highest packet, you know, the largest package, they can’t say no when they love these extra photos. So they might come in for just the business photos. But when you talk them into wearing something just a little bit more personal, a little bit more special, it is such a great way to upsell, for sure.

00:22:04:09 – 00:22:06:05

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

00:22:06:18 – 00:22:09:17

Let’s talk a little bit, Leslie, about how you market to your clients.

00:22:10:03 – 00:22:45:20

Oh, boy. Yeah. So this is on my to do list this year. I really I don’t know. I never grew up around other artists. I didn’t grow up with other business owners. When I right out of college, I just basically got a job and didn’t know what I was going to do. So I’ve had to learn marketing. I’ve had to learn accounting. I mean, I did go to college for business. I got an associate’s degree in business, but I feel like I didn’t really delve into like all the deep, dark things of marketing and accounting.

00:22:45:22 – 00:23:21:16

So I just kind of had to learn along the way. And when I found Sue, she put all of these little elements into, like I said, bite sized chunks where you could go in and learn a little bit of marketing, learn a little bit. I had no idea how to sell anything. I am not a sales person, so it’s just been a transition to kind of teach myself and to learn from other photographers and from Sue how to kind of make everything work. So marketing, I just I don’t have a really strong method yet and I, that’s my goal for this year.

00:23:21:23 – 00:23:39:21

Last year was like, change my pricing, go headfirst into Sue’s pricing, just do it. And then this year I really want to hone in on my systems and creating a marketing schedule and creating campaigns. Yeah, yeah. So I just I want to get better with it.

00:23:40:06 – 00:23:44:04

Well, let’s back up a little bit. How often are you shooting and what’s your sales average?

00:23:44:15 – 00:24:19:20

So right now and this has been and I don’t know if you feel this way, I mean, I know you shoot quite a bit, but for me, I always slow down in the wintertime. I took December through January off. Fantastic. Yeah. I mean, that’s that’s my time with my kids. Like, actually it would be Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving through New Year’s is is my time with my family. But so right now, I don’t have a super consistent booking this time of year, but usually in the fall, I am booked solid from like summer.

00:24:19:22 – 00:24:45:23

Summer to fall is just usually booked. So right now my sales average since converting to Sue’s method is probably around 1200. From September to November of last year, I grossed like $21,000, which for me was an entire year before. Yes, that’s amazing. It was pretty crazy. I love it. Yeah, it was pretty cool.

00:24:46:07 – 00:24:55:26

Okay. So and I know you’ve kind of shared a little bit about your sessions, but what which sessions were you doing the most of for that $21,000. Last year?

00:24:55:28 – 00:24:58:10

High school seniors, for sure. 100 for.

00:24:58:12 – 00:24:59:04

Seniors. Okay.

00:24:59:10 – 00:25:08:26

Well, it was crazy. It was just and it was just by word of mouth, like, I don’t pay for ads. I’m really bad at keeping up with my website. That’s another goal this year.

00:25:09:21 – 00:25:16:17

So I just have I’m just almost done with redoing mine, like, three days out. Cannot wait. Leslie, it’s been so.

00:25:16:19 – 00:25:36:27

Long. I know it’s going to be heaven. It’s going to be magical when it happens. Yeah, I think for me, just. Yeah, it was high school seniors. I did do a couple personal branding sessions in there. Yeah, you know what’s funny? The year before that, I was doing mostly like children and milestones, so my business is just morphing and transitioning and changing. Okay.

00:25:37:18 – 00:25:45:07

All right. So that’s another kind of benefit of a small town is word of mouth travels very quickly.

00:25:46:01 – 00:25:49:01

And very fast. Okay.

00:25:49:14 – 00:26:26:05

This is a total like side note story, but I kind of feel it’s relevant. So we own some apartment buildings and. There is a little six unit that we own in a very, very small town. I want to say there’s like 7 to 800 people in this town and we’ve always used on my property manager always uses a local plumber and there was a plumbing issue and it needed to be addressed immediately in one of the units. So my property manager called the local plumber and he was not responding and we were like, okay, he called me and my property manager called me and was like, Hey, would it be okay if I just called this other company because we need this fix now? I was like definitely like tenants first.

00:26:26:19 – 00:26:37:15

So he told the tenant he’s going to be calling this big plumbing company. Within an hour, the local plumber called my property manager was like, What’s going on? You’re calling the.

00:26:37:27 – 00:26:38:13

Company?

00:26:39:02 – 00:27:11:16

And it turned out that the tenant worked with the plumber’s wife at the local diner and he happened to be in there. And someone said something like, Yo, Steve, you know, they’re calling Roto-Rooter or whatever the company, you know, and it was just like he’s like, I’ll be there, I’ll be there. So there is something about word of mouth. And this is a benefit to you when you provide great service and people love working with you. And it can also be a detriment if things you know, if you’re not a great customer service provider, you know, can kind of go either way.

00:27:11:28 – 00:27:12:13

Yeah.

00:27:12:20 – 00:27:37:06

For sure. I mean, oh, man, that’s that’s the truth. Yeah. I feel like in our town, you know, you and I talked about that. I, you know, I’m I’m really the only one doing this experience here. Yeah and South Bend is 30 minutes away. But a lot of people don’t want to travel. I mean, it’s 30 minutes. They don’t want to travel that, you know, so they come to me, which is to my advantage.

00:27:37:16 – 00:27:58:18

So yeah, very cool. Okay. The good thing is, though, that it sounds like you have built things up, you know, with this word of mouth type thing without really keeping up on website and doing all these extra things. So it almost sounds like once you get a marketing campaign going, you’re going to be, I mean, I would imagine that you’re going to take off even more.

00:27:59:02 – 00:28:29:12

That’s the goal, man. I really I really want to get consistent with with the bookings and being in this group and talking to some of the other mentors and stuff about creating different shoot days. And I make my schedule now. Like before I would, I would kind of let my clients kind of rule my schedule and when we would shoot. And now I’m like, Nope, I shoot Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I start my sessions at 10 a.m.. Of course, if it’s a senior, that’s different. But in the studio, ten or 11 a.m.,

00:28:29:20 – 00:28:40:02

I do work with people a little bit. You know, I, I try to be understanding, but I love that I make my own rules now. I mean, it’s given me the confidence to do that.

00:28:40:09 – 00:28:47:24

So yeah, and that’s how it should be, you know. It is. Well, okay. Did you leave a 9 to 5 before or did you not work before that?

00:28:48:03 – 00:29:16:01

No, I was a mom, so yeah, I was a bank teller for a couple of years. And when I got pregnant with my oldest, so she was born in oh 8, 2008. So I was just a stay at home mom and then, you know, picked up my camera because we were going to J.C. Penney and I thought, I can do that better than that. So so that was the start of the whole thing. Yeah.

00:29:16:18 – 00:29:42:06

I was just going to say that people at least I think in my opinion, people don’t leave their 8 to 5 job, you know, full time job should be told by others when they’re going to work. So it’s like making our own schedule is really important. And actually I saw on your website that if did it say that, that if someone wanted to book on the weekends, it was like an extra $200 fee or something like that.

00:29:42:18 – 00:29:50:27

Correct. Yeah. Smart. Yeah. If they want to do a weekend shoot, that’s fine and it’ll be that additional fee.

00:29:50:29 – 00:29:54:07

Do people take you up on that or are they sticking with more weekend or weekdays?

00:29:54:09 – 00:30:02:02

So we’ll make it work during the week usually. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. So we can, I mean you know, I don’t want to work weekends so.

00:30:02:25 – 00:30:09:21

I wonder do you think once you redo, redo to your website that you’ll take that off of and just tell people when you are.

00:30:09:23 – 00:30:25:23

Available? I don’t know that I’ll take it off because I feel like there are going to be an occasional one or two weekends a year, maybe three, that I’ll make the exception for people who really want me. I feel like I can do that. I just don’t want to work every weekend.

00:30:26:12 – 00:30:47:21

Yeah, that makes sense. There are times I do the same on occasion, very rarely. But on occasion I will work a weekend if it’s, you know, a client that I’ve been really, really wanting to work with. Or maybe I had to reschedule on someone, you know, so on occasion. And, you know, sometimes I don’t mind going off and doing a shoot because it’s fun even though it’s a weekend. So.

00:30:47:25 – 00:30:50:15

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

00:30:51:02 – 00:30:56:07

Okay, Leslie, let’s talk about your pricing structure and how how you do. Things.

00:30:56:27 – 00:31:19:21

Yeah, basically, I actually just changed my pricing again. It was I was looking at I think it was Cat Fordes I was looking through some old posts on Facebook and she had I think I’m pretty sure it was her, so forgive me if I’m mistaken there, but she had wrote that she felt like her first package couldn’t be over a thousand, and that’s what I wrote.

00:31:19:23 – 00:31:20:24

Who did you say wrote that?

00:31:21:03 – 00:31:28:15

I thought it was her, but I could be wrong. Gotcha. I thought so. But maybe not. I don’t know.

00:31:28:24 – 00:31:32:20

No, I think I think it was her, too, that said $1,000 was her like.

00:31:32:22 – 00:32:06:25

BLOCK. Was her block. Yeah, that was. Yes. And so when I started last year, my first package was 900 for six, right? So this year I was like, you know what I, I feel like, especially with having personal branding, I wanted to keep my packages similar so they weren’t confusing in my head. And I wanted to do either five, ten, 20 for my headshots and personal branding. And then for my regular portrait clients, it’s ten, 20, 30.

00:32:07:05 – 00:32:27:14

So it just kept it, you know, similar in my mind. But I wanted to start out with my portraits at 1400, so I just did it. I just changed it this year. So I think that, again, it’s not my my bottom package is 1400 for ten and then it’s 2200 for 20 and 3000 for 30.

00:32:27:26 – 00:32:43:14

Awesome. Very cool. Yeah, I like that. I like simplicity because a confused mind says no. So if you keep things simple, small, medium, large package, I think it works really well. Now, what do you include? You know, are there prints, is it digitals? You know, what do you include in those?

00:32:43:23 – 00:33:14:19

Oh yeah. So for my headshot collections, I’ve actually kind of followed your method a little bit and I kind of do my own little thing. So like for my bottom package, it’s five images for 800 and then they get one extra social crop. So if they wanted it to be like a square crop, if they want me to make them a banner or something like that, they get that. Now if they go up to the top package, which is 20, I kind of follow your lead and they get the black and white versions as well.

00:33:15:06 – 00:33:29:09

So they double the images and then they get eight social crops. So that would be like like I said, the banner image is a square crop, whatever they would want, you know, for LinkedIn or for Instagram or whatever, you know, I would provide that too.

00:33:29:24 – 00:33:38:27

That’s a really smart upsell because it cost you nothing to to do those extra crops like maybe extend some background. Yeah. You know, I mean, what takes you for 2 minutes? Yeah.

00:33:39:05 – 00:33:57:27

Yes, absolutely. Now, my my portrait packages, you know, Sue teaches us to sell things we love. And I have found some products that I love that I feel are absolutely worth it. And then when I did that, I was able to sell. It was crazy.

00:33:58:01 – 00:34:00:15

So tell us about these products.

00:34:00:29 – 00:34:38:08

So my folio box I actually love it’s 3 XM they have I do their wood it’s a wood window box that holds up to 30. So but it’s absolutely beautiful. They can choose white, they can choose black or they can choose walnut. It’s sturdy, it’s beautiful. They can change out the picture in the front. It holds a usb-c. Now my bottom package just comes with a basic box. So the 1400 dollars package of ten matted prints just comes with a black box with my logo that also comes with the three XM.

00:34:38:10 – 00:34:51:16

It’s beautiful. But the next package up, which is my luxe package, that’s 2200, that comes with 20. And that includes the premium wood box that everybody wants because when they see it, it’s beautiful.

00:34:52:07 – 00:34:56:10

Yeah. Okay, very cool. When you’re doing your reveal.

00:34:56:25 – 00:34:57:14

Or.

00:34:57:19 – 00:35:07:00

You know, photo viewing or however you however you say it, are you doing it printed or are you doing digital and then ordering these prints later? How how does that work for you?

00:35:07:12 – 00:35:43:21

Yeah. So I set up an appointment after their photoshoot. I do just a basic Lightroom edit on all of the portraits that I want to show to them. I tend to overshoot and I normally show anywhere from 45 to sometimes even 100 pictures. So it just depends on the session, how long it was and what I want to show to the client. So we set up an appointment, they come to the studio and I roll out. I have a TV that’s on a cart that gets put away when I’m doing sessions and I reveal their edited pictures to them.

00:35:43:23 – 00:36:01:12

Not retouched, but they’re edited pictures to them with a musical slide show. And then they get to see the products, they get to hold the products. I go through everything with them. I help them order and I explain to them that I do the retouching after they order of the images they purchase.

00:36:01:25 – 00:36:07:09

Okay. So you must have pretty decent in camera skills and lighting skills.

00:36:08:10 – 00:36:11:10

Yes. I mean, I hope so. Yeah.

00:36:12:25 – 00:36:35:08

Yeah, man. I feel like my game has been like up since I came across. Like, Felix’s lighting class and posing like people. Like I did my daughter’s portraits the other day and I post them and everyone is just like, you know, raving over them. Like, Yes, this is the style I want to shoot now. Like, this is me, guys. So, yeah, absolutely.

00:36:35:15 – 00:36:39:06

Oh, that’s so great. Isn’t it so wonderful when you find your style and.

00:36:39:21 – 00:36:40:06

Wow.

00:36:40:21 – 00:36:43:13

It’s yeah, it’s sometimes it takes a while.

00:36:44:01 – 00:37:08:00

Yeah. She does she helps connect the dots. Like I knew I knew I wanted to shoot more painterly and more more magazine style, and I didn’t know how to get there. And she just lays it all out there. I feel like so many photographers are so hush hush about their secrets and they don’t want to show their pricing. They don’t want to tell people how they do things and Sue’s like, here it is. It’s up to you to make it happen, you know?

00:37:08:08 – 00:37:13:02

Oh, I know. She loves sharing it all. She just, like, wants people to elevate so much. It’s incredible.

00:37:13:10 – 00:37:14:28

Yeah. Yeah, it’s wonderful.

00:37:15:02 – 00:37:22:27

And why not share it? You know, like she’s already got her successful business. It doesn’t matter. It’s not like. Like there’s enough clients for all of us.

00:37:23:01 – 00:37:25:17

Yeah, I was just going to say that. Absolutely.

00:37:26:03 – 00:37:58:05

Yeah, for sure. Very cool. Okay, so let’s talk about your lighting setup because I feel like in order to do Same Day Reveals, I’ve thought about doing same day, you know, reveals or viewings or whatever. I just am like, Oh, when I’m not done. When I’m done with the shoot, I’m done with the shoot. Like, I just want to, like, help them pack up and say our goodbyes, and then I need to decompress. Like, that’s just how I work. It’s like I love being around people, and then I don’t want to be around more like. So I feel like if you’re going to show unretouched photos, you really have to have it nailed down.

00:37:58:07 – 00:38:06:27

And I feel pretty decent about how my lighting whatever. But anyways, you mentioned that you don’t show them, you know, retouched. And so I’m curious what your set up is.

00:38:06:29 – 00:38:24:15

And I mean, truth be told, no one’s ever been like, oh, wow, you know, like until I show them an actual retouched picture, they’re like, Oh, wow, that is a difference. Like they would never know. Like we know with photographers, they don’t know, you know, they don’t look at certain things and pick certain things apart like we do.

00:38:24:19 – 00:38:25:21

Right? True.

00:38:26:07 – 00:38:26:22

Yeah.

00:38:27:03 – 00:38:28:14

So what’s your lighting set up then?

00:38:28:26 – 00:39:01:12

Okay. So I actually use I just upgraded to an Einstein. I was shooting with Alien 84 hundreds for all of the past five years. And then I decided I wanted to do to upgrade to the Einstein because of the more color consistency and things like that. But so actually with Einstein I have a huge I believe it’s 80, 86 inch PLM and then I also have a 64 inch PLM.

00:39:01:14 – 00:39:22:25

So just depending on the circumstance, I use both of them. And then I’ve really been watching Felix’s classes and my goal is to just continue learning and getting better. And I’m using those whiteboards. I have the two poly boards, the black side and the white side. That man, those are game changers. They are game changers. Oh, yeah, love.

00:39:22:27 – 00:39:26:19

Love, love my V Flats. Absolutely. You can control light with them in such beautiful ways.

00:39:26:27 – 00:39:31:06

In the black tunnel. Oh, my gosh. That one’s a fun one for me. Oh, yeah.

00:39:31:17 – 00:40:02:22

It’s definitely there’s a for people listening. If you go on the Portrait System website, there are two examples of this. Well, there’s I think there’s more than two, but the ones that stick out to me is Vogue Portrait. And that will show the black tunnel setup that Leslie is talking about. It’s so, so beautiful. And I know there’s a couple more, too, but another one, if you’re shooting outside and you want to use Black Vee Flats, it’s called the Harsh Outdoor Light Hack. And Sue shows you that way how to do this kind of black tunnel that adds such great, amazing contrast in your photos. And so anyway, just a little side note there.

00:40:02:24 – 00:40:06:03

If you’re wondering what the black tunnel setup is, you can check it out there.

00:40:06:15 – 00:40:25:10

Yeah, I feel like into like just a little quick side note, like feathering my light has oh my gosh, that has been like night and day difference in my work for it’s it’s so cool you would never think of opening your light away for a subject would create a beautiful even beautiful light in it it does.

00:40:25:18 – 00:40:30:20

Yeah. Yeah, I know it kind of seems counterintuitive to turn the white light away instead of towards them, so.

00:40:30:25 – 00:40:32:15

Yeah, yeah. Felix is the master.

00:40:32:17 – 00:40:41:27

He’s Oh, yeah, totally. Okay. And then tell us a little bit about your barn studio. What is in it? Is there a bathroom? How big is it like? Describe it to us.

00:40:42:28 – 00:41:12:05

Well, my studio is, it’s pretty quaint, but I think the final dimensions now, these are in feet. It’s about 27 by 30. Yeah, about 27 by 30. And then I have like an eight by eight foyer so when they walk in it’s just one big open room. I do have a bathroom, it’s very small, but it does the job and people, it’s big enough they can change in there. So I don’t have to have like a changing area. Oh, that’s nice.

00:41:12:08 – 00:41:46:11

Yeah, I have. When you walk in, there’s a nice little sitting area. I have the white futon that everybody wants get. I got the white for the time and that’s where I do my reveals. That’s where people sit. And when they’re not being photographed, they kind of hang out there. And then it’s just basically one big wall of, you know, two areas of backdrops. So it’s very simple. I do have a really cool item and it’s a one of a piece item. It’s a faux fireplace. And my client actually handmade this for one of his shows and he gave it to me.

00:41:46:16 – 00:41:51:02

Wow, that’s cool. It’s amazing. Like, you’ll have to go check it out. It’s so cool.

00:41:51:11 – 00:42:04:05

Awesome. Well, that’s how I was going to say, if you’re listening, if you don’t know that we have a blog, we have a blog post for each guest. And so let’s make sure to include some of those photos of your of your barn studio so that people can check it out on the blog post.

00:42:04:12 – 00:42:35:09

Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, it’s funny, every time I post a picture of the studio, people are more interested in my ceiling because not everybody is from the Midwest and not everybody has pole barns. So it’s a pole barn ceiling and they love the look of the pole barn ceiling. I’m like, well, my husband said that was what I was getting, so that’s what I got. And it’s awesome. But it’s beautiful and it’s tent. I did. I do have ten foot ceilings and coming from seven foot ceilings in my basement, it’s amazing.

00:42:35:11 – 00:42:48:09

Oh, huge upgrade. Yes, definitely. We’re in the process of we’re getting bids on building a pole barn. And I’m considering having so having it built out, I’m like, maybe I should come over and check out your your space

00:42:50:11 – 00:42:50:26

Yes, my husband is an electrician, so he

00:42:51:01 – 00:42:52:22

knows the codes and all that stuff. So.

00:42:53:18 – 00:42:58:00

Yeah, yeah. It’s definitely something I’m considering. Do come check it out.

00:42:58:02 – 00:42:59:16

Very cool. Awesome.

00:42:59:26 – 00:43:10:22

Well, thank you for sharing everything with us. It’s. I’m really excited for you. It sounds like you have just, you know, you’re ready and primed and prepped and ready to just, like, explode your business. And it’s very exciting.

00:43:11:09 – 00:43:31:27

Thank you. I am. I am. I am super excited. And everybody I talk to, like, I just feel like I want to share with them and other photographers. I’m like, check out Sue, like, you can do it, I promise you. And they’re like, Oh, I know one of those places. And I’m like, I promise you they will. People, if they want you, they will book you. Yes, definitely.

00:43:33:00 – 00:43:38:13

Cool. While you’re an inspiration for the people in your area, too, the other photographers. So hopefully they’ll listen to that.

00:43:40:18 – 00:43:41:19

Oh, yeah.

00:43:41:21 – 00:43:51:08

Awesome. Okay. I do have a couple other questions for you that I always ask at the end of each episode. And the first one is what is something you cannot live without when you’re doing a photo shoot?

00:43:51:26 – 00:44:07:03

Oh, honestly, now my v-flats like those, those are I have to have them and of course my apple boxes and I want to get some more of those made. But probably those two things, you know, I use in every session.

00:44:07:18 – 00:44:12:07

Yeah. Yeah, cool. Number two is how do you spend your time when you’re not working?

00:44:12:19 – 00:44:21:00

Oh, when I am not working, I am Mom. So I am cleaning the house and I feel like this is lame. Nikki,

00:44:22:26 – 00:44:24:15

I’m a very boring person.

00:44:25:12 – 00:44:32:04

It’s not lame. It’s very realistic as I stare out at my bedroom where it looks like a teenager lives.

00:44:32:06 – 00:44:32:21

Right.

00:44:32:23 – 00:44:34:02

It’s just my shit everywhere.

00:44:34:04 – 00:44:38:06

So my cats over here like eating the carpet and.

00:44:40:14 – 00:44:42:16

Oh, yeah, yeah. We’re always busy.

00:44:43:01 – 00:44:55:27

Yeah, that’s the mom life, that’s for sure. I mean, I guess everyone’s busy. It’s not like you have to have kids to be busy. It’s just we have these extra. We have these extra people who have busy lives that are also contributing to our busyness.

00:44:56:15 – 00:44:58:17

Absolutely. Absolutely.

00:44:59:09 – 00:45:02:10

Okay. Number three is, what is your favorite inspirational quote?

00:45:03:11 – 00:45:15:11

I’m going to go with a Sue quote here more for more and not less, for less. That has been a game changer for my business and understanding how to build my packages.

00:45:16:12 – 00:45:27:22

Awesome. And let’s let’s just, like, talk about that quote for a second. So more for more is like plumping up the value of the you know, the bigger packages, correct?

00:45:28:05 – 00:45:30:01

Yes. And not cheapening yourself.

00:45:30:07 – 00:45:54:19

Yes, definitely. And again, plumping up the value does not need to cost you a ton of extra money and time like it’s perceived value. If you’re like like you said with me giving the black and white versions, I’d entice them with a few black and whites that I show them. And when they’re like, Oh, I can’t decide between the color, the black and white, I’m like, Well, if you get the top package, you get the black and white versions of all 20 of your photos or whatever. So and it cost me.

00:45:54:21 – 00:45:55:06

Nothing.

00:45:55:15 – 00:45:57:03

Like I  have a preset. I just do it.

00:45:57:09 – 00:45:57:25

It’s done.

00:45:58:26 – 00:46:04:18

You know. Yeah. Okay. Number four is, what would you tell people who are just starting out?

00:46:05:07 – 00:46:29:12

Oh, just do it. Like, I don’t know. I’m not a very bold person. And Sue just gave me the confidence to just just do it. Like, if you are on the fence about raising your prices, just do it. Like just learn all the things you need to know. Learn the foundations, learn your posing, learn your lighting, you know, get a few models in there, boost your self-confidence, and then just do it. Don’t wait.

00:46:29:21 – 00:46:35:14

Yeah, exactly. I love that. Awesome. Well, thank you again. Where can people find you online, Leslie?

00:46:35:22 – 00:46:50:13

Well, I am on Instagram and Facebook. Just Leslie Q Photography. Leslie with an IE not an EY. I also have my website, just LeslieQPhotography.com and I just opened up my LinkedIn.

00:46:52:02 – 00:46:54:22

What is it? A LinkedIn Social. What is it called?

00:46:55:04 – 00:46:55:25

Oh, LinkedIn.

00:46:55:27 – 00:46:58:18

Yeah, it’s just like a platform right now.

00:46:58:29 – 00:46:59:23

I don’t have LinkedIn.

00:47:00:17 – 00:47:17:15

Well, I’ve been thinking about it, but one of the the ladies that you had on your podcast, she was ahead I believe she was in Indiana too. Mhm. And she was talking about starting a LinkedIn and that how it grew her business. And I’ve actually had two bookings since I opened it in January.

00:47:18:03 – 00:47:27:21

That’s so smart. And you know, honestly, if I was really trying to increase the amount of photoshoots I was doing, that’s exactly what I would do is go straight to LinkedIn because that’s something I haven’t done yet.

00:47:28:07 – 00:47:38:17

Yeah, I don’t really know what I’m doing right now. Keep it real and keep it relevant to headshots and personal branding. So. Yep. Yep. Awesome.

00:47:39:06 – 00:47:46:27

Cool. Well, thank you again. It was such a pleasure to chat with you. And yeah, I hope we get to meet in person. Maybe I’ll come down and see. See your barn, if that’s okay.

00:47:47:09 – 00:47:50:03

That would be wonderful. Any time. Awesome. Awesome.

00:47:50:10 – 00:47:51:28

All right. Well, you take care. We’ll chat soon.

00:47:52:28 – 00:48:25:21

Thank you so much for listening to the Portrait System Podcast. Your five-star reviews really help us to continue what we do. So, if you like listening, would you mind giving us a review wherever you listen? I also encourage you to head over to SueBryceEducation.com, where you can find all of the education you need to be a successful photographer. There are over 1,000 on-demand educational videos on things like posing, lighting, styling, retouching, shooting, marketing, sales, business, and self-value. 

There’s also the 90 Day Startup Challenge, plus so many downloads showing hundreds of different poses. We have to-do checklists for your business, lighting PDFs, I mean truly everything to help make you a better photographer and to make you more money. Once again, that’s SueBryceEducation.com.