Mindset & Money Mastery for Photographers with Karinda K.

81. The Pivot That Changed Everything with Guest Austin Liberato

• Karinda K.

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What happens when a wedding photographer decides to completely pivot their business to better align with family, values, and lifestyle? In this honest and inspiring episode, Austin shares how he transitioned from long wedding days and digital galleries to building a thriving family portrait business that centers around in-person connection and lasting artwork.

After years of burnout and missing emotional connection with clients, Austin began working with photography business coach Karinda and restructured his approach from the ground up. Now, his clients invest an average of $2,300 per session—and he gets to witness their reactions in real time. Even more importantly, he’s created a sustainable business that allows him to be present with his two young children.

Austin opens up about:

  • Facing the fear of raising prices
  • Learning how to market face-to-face at farmer’s markets
  • Building confidence around sales conversations
  • And letting go of social media comparison traps

One of the most powerful moments? When Austin installed large-scale portraits of his own family and saw firsthand the value of printed artwork. That experience changed how he saw his work—and how he communicated its worth to clients.

If you're feeling stuck, burnt out, or simply wondering what else is possible for your photography business, this episode is the dose of clarity and courage you need to hear.

Meet Austin Liberato
Austin Liberato is a passionate portrait photographer who believes in capturing life’s most meaningful, emotional moments—whether it’s a wedding day or a quiet moment with family. Known for his heartfelt approach and storytelling style, Austin isn’t just a photographer; he’s a cheerleader, third-wheel, and sidekick for the people he photographs.

After years of photographing weddings, Austin transitioned his business to focus on family portraits, creating artwork that becomes a lasting part of his clients’ homes. His work is rooted in connection, authenticity, and the desire to preserve memories that matter.

See more of Austin’s work at www.liberatophoto.com or follow him on Instagram at @liberato.photography.

Connect with Karinda!

Thanks for listening!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Mindset and Money Mastery for Photographers the podcast. We help overwhelmed photographers make more money while simplifying their business by mastering their you guessed it mindset and money. Tune in each week for practical and actionable tips to take your photography business up a notch. Let's dive right in.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so today we have Austin joining us. Austin, as in. I always say Austin, the coaching client, austin, because my husband's here is also Austin, so that's now become the joke in our house If I'm like Austin and then I have to clarify. So we have Austin on here today. He is one of my coaching clients that is graduating and moving on to spread his wings and I asked him if he would come on here and do like a little podcast episode where we can talk about his journey, his experience, his business. Maybe he has something valuable to share with you guys today. So welcome Austin. You want to introduce yourself?

Speaker 3:

Thank you, yeah, thanks for having me. I can see how the Austin thing gets quite confusing back and forth. So I am from Denver, colorado. I have in the past primarily photographed weddings, but reached out to Corinda to help me with my family portrait side of the business and get that going.

Speaker 2:

I love that. So I think you found me on the podcast, is that right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, can I say the name? Yeah, yeah, it was the Photo Biz X podcast. You did an interview on there. Okay, I love what you had to say. I've listened to them for years and I just really clicked with what you were talking about.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I love that. So you listened to that podcast and then did you go find my podcast next, or did you just contact me right away?

Speaker 3:

I think, I like researched into you. I don't think I went straight to your podcast. I think I started like looking you up and making sure you were like a real person. You know the typical stalking that you do for your higher coach, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, appropriate, appropriate, for sure, and that's what I was talking to Corey, one of our other coaching clients, and she was like I wouldn't listen to all the podcast episodes because I wanted to know what you thought about things. She's like that's how I knew that was the right choice for me. Awesome, I love that. So you hired me because you were wanting to transition more into portraits and kind of figure out how to make that work in your business. So what kind of has been or what was pushing you to lean more into portraits?

Speaker 3:

I think that would be that. It's my stage of life is the starting a family. I have two kids now, so I have a two and a half year old boy and a one year old girl and I found myself at weddings, like I was at the age of weddings when I was shooting weddings, and now I'm moving to the family side and so now I'm kind of transitioning to families. Who knows, maybe one year I'll do seniors or move on to the next thing, which you would think is kind of strange, because you shoot horses, I do families and it's like well, what did you connect to Austin? I think what it was was what you talked about how you bring the client through the client journey and experience, more so than what we shoot, because what we shoot is so different. But it's how you talked about how you bring clients through. That experience is what really clipped with me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. It's funny. I feel like business genres change with your phase of life. So, like I did in the same way, I did weddings when I was like getting married, freshly married myself. Then I did newborns I don't know where that came from because I didn't have a kid. I was actually terrified of babies when I photographed newborns. Every time a mom would hand me her baby when they came into the studio I was like, oh no, I'm going to break it. So that was kind of weird, but I still love photographing newborns at the time.

Speaker 2:

And then I shifted back into horses, which is kind of where I started, before weddings. So, yeah, it's interesting how seasons of life I was thinking about that last night. I was like I wonder if everyone gets that like five year itch where, like, after doing the same thing in your business for five years, you start to feel a little like restless, like, oh, I need to do something different or I need to like change or something needs to be different. Do you think that you got that like itch that you needed to do something different? Were you getting bored at all with weddings or was it just a phase of life thing?

Speaker 3:

I think it's both it's phase of life and two like man, working eight, 10, 12-hour days on weddings Like it's a lot, and being away from your family on the weekends. It's getting tougher and tougher, yeah for sure. And who knows, maybe I'll transition to equine if my daughter gets into, you know, equestrian stuff. Maybe in a couple of years we'll be working together again when my daughter you know doing equine, you know riding equestrian and doing that kind of thing.

Speaker 2:

I can see it now. You're going to be like. I photographed my first horse, corinda. I just had to do it. I couldn't say no.

Speaker 3:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

I love that. So was there a point in time when you kind of started to realize like I could make the same amount of money from one portrait session as I could a wedding.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, definitely, and that kind of came from initially, listening to that podcast that I was talking about learning more about other sides of the industry and hearing it good. In here there's a I mean honestly, there's a bunch of coaches and things on that podcast that I've listened to. But when I had said it earlier, when I heard you talk, it just really resonated with me more than any other and that's what just made me reach out me more than any other and that's what just made me reach out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. So what was the process like of you digging in to the program and I'll add a side note that Austin was in our Master, your Mind and Money, which is our higher end coaching program. That's super intense. It's a lot. What was that like for you kind of diving into it and starting to go through and watch the videos and learn?

Speaker 3:

It's like starting over, almost, like you get into the first ones and you always want to jump into, like, okay, how do I start making money and doing this part? You start from the beginning. You talk about the whys and all behind the scenes parts so that you build a good foundation and then you work into the sales processes, the pricing and all your self-doubts and that kind of stuff the other parts of it. It was really good for me because it was. It was such a it's such a big change.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

That it was really nice to get into. I guess getting back to the basics and starting from the beginning. It felt like it's stripping away everything that I thought I knew about my business and building that back up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so was there anything that surprised you the most?

Speaker 3:

Oh, what surprised me the most.

Speaker 2:

That's a big question.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think, coming from weddings and doing kind of more of like a shoot and burn Although I do have um, I did sell albums at the time I think it's finding out that clients do value your work and that you have to find them, but that they're willing to pay for me. You know, right now two thousand three thousand dollars like right for for for photography.

Speaker 2:

Some images yeah, Wayne, before you found me and before you really understood that, what did you think that clients would spend? Was there like a number in your head where you're like people won't spend more than X dollars?

Speaker 3:

I don't know about an exact number, but you always like for weddings, you always kind of throw it out there. There's so much competition and everything. You throw the number out there. You're like it's like sliding into the number over. You're like, will it buy? And it's like looking at those numbers now it's like, oh my gosh, it's nothing. Yeah, compared to doing portrait sales stuff. Yeah, to answer your question, there wasn't exactly a number that I thought that was like that's a lot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so how do you feel about the difference in what your clients are spending now versus what you thought was possible or what you were doing beforehand?

Speaker 3:

I mean, I think it's, I feel like it's almost normalized now. You know, each time you climb up the rung of a ladder it's the highest you've been. But you look down and see like where you've came from, it's, it's. It just feels almost normal now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

So it still doesn't mean I'm not nervous. When I do it, I'm always nervous. But if you're not nervous, you're not growing.

Speaker 2:

Right, that's a good point for sure. So what do you think like has surprised you the most about your interaction with your clients whenever you're selling them, while in providing offering this experience to them, like what has been the most surprising part about their reaction, or their response to it?

Speaker 3:

The ones that cry. I've had one or two ladies, one lady, but it was like so thankful and so excited about the portraits she just was like crying on the Zoom call. She loved them so much and then we plan on doing another. She's having another kid, so she it was. She had a one-year-old at the time. This was a few months ago. They're having another kid in about. It was uh, she had a one-year-old at the time there, this was a few months ago having another kid in about eight months or so. She's already reached out about doing another portrait session that's amazing is that?

Speaker 2:

because I'm guessing, when you delivered your wedding portraits or your wedding photos, were you just sending them a gallery and then you didn't get to see their reaction, did you?

Speaker 3:

yeah, you just kind of hope on them, sending you like an email like oh my gosh, we love them, or text, you know, oh my gosh, I love them, right, um, with albums, um, you know, I do get that reaction because I put something together for them and I get to see it, but it it's, I don't know, it was never really the same, I think yeah, I don't know if, like, couples from weddings are just kind of like almost burnt out a little bit, like they're so excited they're always.

Speaker 3:

I was like when I asked for reviews, like I get reviews, but it was never that kind of reaction.

Speaker 2:

I agree with that. I, every time I sent a wedding gallery out, I would be like, okay, did they see it? Do they like it? Like, oh my gosh, what if they haven't said anything? Or they're like thanks, they look great. Like that's all it looks great. Do they know how many hours I just stared at their face editing all those photos?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, when I don't hear anything, I lose sleep for nights. I'm like do they hate me? Do they hate the photos?

Speaker 2:

That is an interesting point about. The thing that you really love is that now you get to see your client's reaction to your portraits. I kind of feel like that's like a drug for me. Now it's like the best part of it for me is getting to hear that the clients actually like what I create. Was there any fear around, like how people were going to feel about narrowing down their photos with you, or did you have any like hesitations about going into that process?

Speaker 3:

That's a good question. Did I have fear about them liking? You know, I still do kind of sometimes have a little bit of fear, I think because what I create for them is such a I put my heart and soul into it and like I want them to love the images as much as I love them. Because for me, when I create these like when I do shoots for my wife, for other kids, like I just did one for Mother's Day I love those photos and she loves them so much. I want my clients who see those photos to love them just as much.

Speaker 2:

So there is a little bit fewer when you go, like when I go into reveal like are they gonna love them?

Speaker 3:

and the vast majority of them have been, as you would call them, kind of like over lovers. Yeah, I would say maybe a lot of just writers. I haven't really run into too many unders. I think my personality kind of attracts like over and just writers.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Do your clients? How do your clients feel about the process of narrowing down photos? Because a lot of times I hear photographers say like I'm so scared to like make my client narrow down the photos, or I feel like I'm robbing them by making them narrow down their photos. Do you think that's the case, or do you think your clients appreciate that you're sitting there and guiding them through that process?

Speaker 3:

My thought on that is when I look back, because my wife and I have gotten shoots done every year since we got engaged. So we've been married for five. It'll be five years this year, six years this year, and I've noticed that, like we use have always gotten like digital galleries, we only ever print a couple of them, you know, to put on the wall. So for me, when I am helping my client narrow those down, I know that a vast majority usually people don't even touch them in their wedding album or in their wedding galleries. Like digital galleries.

Speaker 3:

People don't really download but a few of them, their very favorite ones. So I'm just helping them get to that point to select their very favorite ones that are also going to look the very best on the wall. So I've never really had an issue with that because that's how I feel about it. It's like they're really on a wedding gallery. If I return seven or 800, there's like three or four that are just like those are the ones they want on the wall and so, no, I don't have an issue too much with helping them narrow it down.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. That's important. I think I had someone I was chatting with a few weeks ago and they said like I feel really bad asking my client to narrow them down, like I want them to have all of them, and I was like I actually feel like by giving them all of them we're actually doing them a disservice, because then they're overwhelmed and they might not even ever get to the few that they really love to display in their home or to print out or to look at, because they're just like stare at them for hours and then they just close their phone because they're like I don't know which one.

Speaker 3:

It's analysis, paralysis, paralysis, analysis. Yeah, when there's too many, you don't tend to make a decision. When you have limited choices, then I think you're better at making decisions. So that's actually one part of this whole thing that I've not really had too much of. An issue is helping people narrow down on this stuff, but I could see how people would see like, oh, I want them to have everything. Yeah, sometimes, if it was me and I was the client, that's a disservice to me. I feel like yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2:

So talk to me a little bit about the selling part. Do you feel like you're selling really heavily on your Zoom meeting, where you're doing your reveal and selling, or do you feel like a lot of that comes into play elsewhere in the process?

Speaker 3:

It comes into play from your teachings. Before we ever get on the Zoom meeting. We're doing all that.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

That doesn't mean I'm not still nervous. I'm always, you know it's a good nervousness, but no, I feel it makes it much more easy when you just say everything up front. It can be tough, especially that first initial call, when that's when a lot of your clients you know will say, oh, maybe like the decision, if it's the for the right fit with each other, because you don't want to, you don't do them the disservice of them. Find out later on and I'm not perfect at that. I'm definitely getting better. Going back and watching a lot of your videos has helped me refine some of the things. Um, I'm really good with those kind of videos, like re-watching and watching that kind of stuff, but no, once we get into the sales part, like they should know and have an idea, yeah, is it less salesy than you thought it would be in the beginning?

Speaker 2:

were you like ever concerned, like I know I want to sell products, but like you were grossed out by it or anything? Or were you always like we'll see how it goes?

Speaker 3:

um, a little bit of both. Yeah, I think now that I, for me, what I had to do is also have some of my own massive prints in my house from some of my shoots that I did, and now I really appreciate those and that's helped me say, man, everybody else needs to have this in their home, because I have two huge prints, I think, 40 by 60 of my kids upstairs, or 40 by 50 of my kids upstairs, you know, one of each in our dining room and having that made me appreciate it and made me want to give other people the opportunity to have that as well yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2:

How would you describe the sheer amount of content that you went through in the videos? And I don't even know like, did you watch all the videos? Have you gone through all of them? Are you still like? This is a lot. I'm still getting through them. I went through.

Speaker 3:

I'll be honest, I didn't go through everything, but I went through a vast majority. I went through the five steps and the what were the five I was just looking at the other day, yeah, yes. And then the six steps, one multiple times amazing.

Speaker 2:

I love that, yeah, and then after, that is the marketing side. So I always say, like you have to fix your pricing, your base of your business, your client experience, before you market yourself, because you don't want to market yourself and get more poor quality clients or clients that aren't spending money with you. So for the marketing side of things, how has this changed the way you're marketing your business?

Speaker 3:

So I have I've really dived deep into the farmer's market stuff.

Speaker 1:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3:

And I'm trying that out. I can't speak on it quite yet because I've only done one. I was supposed to do it this past weekend but I actually got really sick. Our whole family was sick this past weekend. We're all recovering but I'll be at the next one this coming weekend so I'll have to report back.

Speaker 3:

But I've really dived headlong into it because I've been to our farmer's market before a number of times and just the people that are there seem like the clientele of people that I kind of want to be around, and the first one I went to I felt like was it showed a lot of potential. I talked to the people who worked them and they said, look, it's the really slow season for it. People who are who worked them and they said, look, it's the really slow season for once. It gets into the summer in the next month or so it really picks up and I got good vibes from it. I've had some conversations so far. We talked a little bit about this the other day and so. But I'm still really in the beginning of that. But I'm really diving deep into that part um of of the marketing side I'm gonna kind of see where that takes me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that events are such a big part of the marketing side. I'm going to kind of see where that takes me. Yeah, I love that Events are such a big part of my business. I feel like this cool part about it is there's something different about talking to someone face-to-face.

Speaker 3:

I'm much better face-to-face.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Much better.

Speaker 2:

It's like in the internet space you have to stand out so much and you have to like figure out how to get somebody to get to know you, but within like five seconds, somebody face to face can get to know you and see who you are and like feel for who you are. And I thought it was funny because you mentioned to me that when your kids were there and your wife was there with you, that like it got really busy and everyone wanted to talk to you when your family was there, which I think is super cool and interesting because, like we are our family, is our business, right, it's a whole thing. And I think it's really cool that, like you noticed that that even made a difference at the farmer's market too.

Speaker 3:

Thankfully, this farmer's market is really close by. They are coming to every one of them between their naps. Because when my two and a half year old and my one year old daughter were there, like it was like we were the talk of the town it's like we had puppies at our booth or something, and off to the town, it's like we had puppies at our booth or something, and other families were coming up and talking, I was like what the heck am I chopped liver, just like here, by when I was there in the beginning by myself, and the family came and they laughed and it was just me. It was just like you know, people walking by every once in a while and the family was there. It was like it was.

Speaker 2:

It was, it was hot, it was the place to be so wait, tell your two and a half year old, like four, and then. And then your four year old can sit there. And my child now, when I'm at events, he'll sit there and be like, does your horse want a cookie? Do you want a sticker? And so he'll like, sit there and ask people when they're walking by. He'll be like do you want something? We have stickers. They're really cool. You want a sticker? So funny. He, he, like haggles people. I don't really do that when I'm sitting at events either, but I'll just be like hey, kai, ask these people walking by if they want a sticker.

Speaker 2:

I'm doing it Work for your charm. Give your kids some, some fun stuff to give to people and you know people can't say no to kids. Yeah, so I, I really love that. So where do you see your business going forward from here? Like, what is your vision of where you're going or how do you think this is going to change the 10 year goal plan of your business from here?

Speaker 3:

So I'm starting to. The biggest part is I'm starting to push away or move slowly away from weddings. It's still kind of like my bread and butter, like safety blanket. I guess you could say More, my safety blanket. You know, like I know, in nine months I have this money coming in. Yeah, we hold on to that feeling, um, but mentally I am pushing towards the family portrait stuff, ips, um, and looking in that direction and moving everything towards there. Currently, with my marketing stuff is the, like I said, the farmer's market, and then I've also been doing a lot of auctions and that's currently where, like since I've just started the farmer's market auctions have I've also been doing a lot of auctions and that's currently where, like since I've just started the farmer's market auctions have been where most of my business stuff has come from.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that and I always say like when you're building your business or you're trying to go into a new genre, you kind of have to make your own momentum and pull the people in until the organic trickle of people comes in.

Speaker 2:

But you have to be so strategic in the way you do it that you don't devalue your brand or you don't do something that a year or two down the road is going to kick you in the butt.

Speaker 2:

Right, you want to always make those really good strategic, long-term strategies in marketing because it does take time. I genuinely think that it takes three years to really get that organic trickle in of business, and those first few years you kind of have to fight to pull those people in and get that momentum going. And then things start to take off and it gets easier. But those first few years are so important to just go out there, pull the people in and not just sit there and be like well, nobody's booking, I guess nobody wants me, I guess I'll just lower my prices or I guess I'll just stand on a street corner and be like who wants photos, like that's something really important. I think that I try to harp on and try to tell people is like, just keep going in those early days, use those smart strategies Like you talked about, like going to events using the silent auction strategy to just kind of get the people in.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm trying to get I don't know who said this. I'm trying to get more no's meaning I'll get more yeses. Yeah, I'm just like trying to figure out those like okay, what can I get into? What can I do to where I can get more no's? That means I'll get more yeses. You know it's just a numbers game of talking with people and that kind of stuff, because it is it's it's.

Speaker 3:

It's tough bringing people in currently, but I do have that experience from like weddings where when I first started, man, I was like working every night. Whenever I had a previous job, I was working every night after work, like for hours, like okay, working on marketing, working on my website, working on everything I could doing styled shoots, doing second photography gigs, and so I know that build up to then it like gets easier. You get past a certain point, like okay, that's a little easier. So it's good to hear that, because that's something I do need to hear you know for the future. It's like, okay, it's not going to always be, it's going to be a hustle, but like not as hard as I'm going right now.

Speaker 2:

Right, and I think there's so many people that get so like disheartened in that building phase that they're just like, well, people aren't banging on my door and it looks like because social media is great at making us feel like this. It looks like that all these other photographers in the Facebook group have all these clients and they're so busy and they're always booked, when social media has a great way of deceiving us and making us think that other people are more in demand or more booked out or things like that, than they actually are. So then we start comparing ourselves too. I don't know if you've noticed that about yourself. I feel like that's probably women probably deal with that more than men do. But there is that thing where you see other people and you're like they're doing it and I'm not. I must be failing.

Speaker 3:

No, I mean, I think, I think every photographer feels that way. I do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

You see these people with these insane photos. You know I think of weddings because most of my feed is still wedding stuff, you know, and you look on your stream like how can I compete with that? But yeah, somebody reaches out again.

Speaker 2:

You know yeah, and I think this crazy part and I think this is really bad in the wedding world too is that so much of what you see on social media from other photographers that look like they're doing all of these cool things. It's just all fake. It's styled shoots, it's fake model call outs. It's them working for free, hustling their butts off to make no money for having the cool feed that is featured on the wedding blogs and that, to me, is like it's the most infuriating thing and it doesn't do it doesn't really do any of us a whole lot of good and it doesn't even do your real clients any good. Cause, when a real person comes to you and you're like, oh, I have to pose a real person, it's not a model now, and then it's like crap, what do I do?

Speaker 3:

yeah, yeah, especially with the yeah, the style shoot stuff. I think I mentioned that earlier. I did like one way back when I very first started. I was like, first off, this is my style. Secondly, like if somebody sees this and I can't reproduce, like I'm sitting out in a field having a picnic with all these nice things and it's kind of like is that who I am and what I do? No, so that's like a one and done thing. I was like no, I shouldn't be doing that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I I did a few. I did a style shoot once, for I did the style shoot that I knew was going to be on the cover of a magazine and they were like you can have the cover, tell us what you want to do. And I was like, okay, I'll create something. But and I did a few of those because that's what you did, like in the wedding space you did that so that you could get featured on the blogs to help your SEO and that was like the whole game. So it's funny.

Speaker 2:

We had a neighbor and she came up to me one day and she's like I just found this photographer. Look, single photo on this photographer's website was from one workshop that I went to myself as well. And it was like her website was stunning and had all these epic photos and I'm like she could never replicate any of that stuff that she's showing people. And here my own neighbor was like, look at this, isn't this cool? And I'm like I've taken every single one of those photos but they've honestly never even come off a memory card. I don't even think I did anything with them because I was like, well, I'm never going to be able to create these, but it's fun to go like sometimes learn and watch and see the way other people shoot, and I'm just more of a lurker in those situations, or I just never do anything.

Speaker 2:

I never touch the photos.

Speaker 3:

No, I agree with you. I do appreciate sometimes just seeing different people's different approaches. You know, to see how they, you know, approach a situation with couples, families, whatever it is. That's always really nice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure, yeah. So before you worked with me, had you worked with other business coaches before?

Speaker 3:

I had briefly yeah, yeah Once before and it and it just that's how. That's why you kind of like struck a chord is that I knew what I didn't want. Um, and that was something that was like kind of like a cookie cutter, like here's how you do things. Lately scripted thing, because when I got out of that I was like this is not my voice, is not who I really am. Yeah, I didn't feel I felt like if style shoot, so I'll shoot for business.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's a good way for business. It was like this is not who I really am. Yeah, I didn't feel.

Speaker 2:

I felt like if I don't shoot, so I'll shoot for business.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's a good way to put it, yeah, for business. It was like this is not, this is all created for me. And so, with that knowledge of like what I didn't want when I and I wasn't, whenever I heard your podcast, I wasn't even really looking that much I heard oh, what'd she say? Well, that makes sense. I like that, you know. And then I started thinking like creeping on, like your, like Instagram or your website or something like that, because your name's really easy Corinda, there's not that many.

Speaker 2:

And I was like what's that? I'm easy to stalk.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. And then I started looking through stuff. I was like you know what Got to your booking page. I was like, okay, I think we should do this. Let's just do this. Let's just see what happens.

Speaker 2:

I so okay on that note of the cookie cutter thing, were there any moments when you were like dang it? I wish she would just give us the thing and just hand it to us so we had it versus. The way I teach is very much like here are the steps you need to take to build it and here's why you need to build it that way.

Speaker 3:

Now go build it yourself you give like for me at least, just like the right amount of push and like information. You go through your whole like script of stuff and information and like you're pretty detailed about it, like and how you go through talking with families or couples and like, or, I'm sorry, with families and everything and that was, but you're not giving us the exact script. You know to word for word. You're, even though you're everything. Here's the thing you have. You talk about like the whole sales process and you have multiple videos on it and all of them are slightly different than how you talk about it. So you can tell that you're. You don't have a script that you exactly stick to. You have a framework and so that framework is really great and that I have built my own this very similar on the list, but it's my own twist and my own voice to it yeah, I that.

Speaker 2:

I think that's important because I remember, like when I was doing newborns, for example, I remember having this one mentor and they were like here is my script for the phone consultation and here's what you need to say, and you just need to take the words that are in red and replace them with what you want to say, and I'm like this doesn't sound like me, and then I never used it because I was so overwhelmed.

Speaker 2:

And so I think that's why I try to be like hey, here's the idea of what we're doing in each part of this. Here's how I say it and I do. You're right, I say it slightly different every time I say it. I always say like I can say it in my sleep, but every time it comes across, it comes across differently because it is me and my heart and soul, and sometimes I am feeling in a different mood than I am, but it's all the same point of it, but it just comes across differently from time to time. So that's really funny that you said that and brought that up, because, you're right, I do sometimes vary a little bit the way I say it.

Speaker 3:

Which also kind of reinforces it, like there's not an exact script, like as long as you have the framework and you hit certain points, the rest of it should flow. You know, know, I think what especially helped too is like like you're not giving us pricing, you're pushing us towards like here's what you should, here's what you look like, here's what you need to think about, here's, here's what your cost is. Now you need to multiply that by four or five percent. You know all those, you know those little pieces. Percent, four or five times four or five percent. You wouldn't be making money.

Speaker 3:

Uh, and what was really nice is like okay, I got into it and like put that whole thing together and I'm like price comparing from all the different places that I'm going to pull pricing and you know, use white house, then I use graphing white house, and so I'm comparing them, everything. I put all together and I send it to you and then I get the thumbs up, thumbs down on whether it was really good, on what I did, and here's why or why not. So I've created this whole thing and it's been vetted by you. You didn't just give me the price yeah, so I feel more confident with it yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2:

So you were one of the people that showed up to like all the Q&A calls. You were like the Q&A call leading student of the year. What were those Q&A calls like for you, or what was the value with those for?

Speaker 3:

you. What I really loved is so I'm working on my own part of my business, but I love topping on people's questions that are in different stages of it, because they had questions that I didn't think of or know to think of, to ask that kind of thing, and I felt like every time we got on there, you always had like, uh, here's a few knowledge bombs to drop on us. You we didn't just go in there and like, oh, no questions today, or, austin, it's just me and you today. Here's, here's my few questions that I have for you, corinda. It was like, okay, now we've gone over the questions, here's a few knowledge bombs on, here's something we're gonna learn and I I'm going to teach you.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, I think like when we get on those calls, sometimes there's no questions and I just kind of start asking questions about what y'all are doing and try to find something I can help y'all with, because I know that there's something there to be worked on. I just have to sometimes get it out of y'all to figure out what that is that you need help with.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, sometimes for me, honestly, sometimes I just don't even know the questions I should be asking, even though I know I have a problem. Sometimes for me, it's like you start to pick and I'm like, oh, wait a second, that's a.

Speaker 2:

That's something I need help with, you know, yeah, yeah, I love that. Um, so you also had one-on-one calls. What were your one-on-one calls like for you, or do you remember anything like really valuable that you got out of your one-on-one calls?

Speaker 3:

I mean I think the most valuable one was pricing. I think that was like the first one, just because that kind of set the stage with being confident with the rest of it. You know, I think I think when I submitted mine, I think my prices were too low and you kind of walked me through like okay, okay, here's how much you're spending for this, like you need to be making this much, and here's how much you're taking off like taxes and you know like you may charge x amount but you're only getting like half of that. Honestly, because you know business costs and that kind of thing. And walking me through why I should feel confident charging more was a big, big one, because once you you have that, because I think I can't speak for everyone else, at least for me as a student.

Speaker 3:

Being confident in your pricing helps with every other part, especially coming from a shoot and burn style where I'm not charging that much comparatively.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah for sure. Do you know kind of round about what your average sales kind of around now for the clients you've had?

Speaker 3:

So I'm averaging just above 2,000, like 2,300.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

I'm selling some small wall art stuff. I think part of that is just getting more confident in what. I'm doing and I'm getting there more and more and, like we talked about, I need to work on my album sale part with the wall art, you know yeah.

Speaker 2:

Once you get that album on there, you're like four grand easy I've got it, I've got it.

Speaker 2:

You've got it, we. I talked to cory earlier and she said she hadn't sold an album in like 10 years, or something crazy like that, until she started the coaching program with me, and now she sells albums all the time. So maybe you just need to have talked to Corey. Corey, what's your secret? Yes, because that's the thing. Like, you can get to like that $2,000, $2,500 easy, just with all art, but if you're missing the album sale too, then that kind of takes your sales to the next place, which will be just one little piece that's missing. That you've got to figure out One little thing that can make the difference. And then all of a sudden it unfolds and you're like oh, every client's spending four or $5,000 now. So I love that.

Speaker 2:

Okay, if there was one piece of advice or one thing that you think every photographer needs to know, like if you were like this is the one thing that I wish I knew when I was growing my business, or this is the one thing I think each and every person listening here needs to know. Is there something that comes to mind? That's a good question, and I totally. Although Austin didn't even know he was recording a podcast episode today, I just sprung this on him. I was like, hey, let's do this. So this is totally off the cuff that I'm asking him these questions.

Speaker 3:

I think that, from where I'm coming from, selling, you know doing weddings, and it's basically doing digital galleries.

Speaker 3:

I think for me, what I needed to know and hear was that people do value your work and value like physical artwork for their home, because that you know that we do in-person sales stuff for because that was that was new to me, that part of like because I've always just like oh, here's your digitals, you can have an album. You know, my process with albums is more than just that. But yeah, I think, just knowing that there are people out there for me that do value and want that service, that help them put artwork on their walls, that's very nice of their family. And part of that too was for me, first off learning it in this group and this course, but also then doing it myself and putting it up in my own house.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. If somebody is thinking about working with me or thinking about going through this process to switch and sell wall art or sell more wall art, what would you say to them about making the investment in themselves and just doing it? It takes money.

Speaker 3:

To make money, you have to invest in yourself. If you don't know where to go with your business and you don't know what to do, you've you've hit a hit a wall. You're switching genres. The next step is for me it's always been like I did it with one of my guys but weddings is to hire a coach, somebody that's done before, a mentor I think, because I don't think I see you as much of a coach as like more of a mentor, walking us through and providing like that, that, those knowledge bombs. I say it Just that knowledge and everything that you did and that you know we'd have our conversations. I felt like when we get done with our little one-on-ones or our group calls. It'd be like a little hoorah and I felt all pumped up and ready to go afterwards and go make those calls and everything else.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's how I say it.

Speaker 2:

I like to give people the good kick in the butt and a nice way to go do the thing.

Speaker 2:

I think we all need that encouragement and I think that's the difference too, in like buying a course to work through versus having a coach or a mentor that you're working with, and I always say, like I have courses, but the courses are just how I get you the knowledge that's in my brain.

Speaker 2:

The real magic happens on the group coaching calls or your one-on-one coaching calls or through the support channels, because you need the knowledge. But then you also sometimes need someone to look at you and say, hey, austin, for you. I really think you should consider this, or have you thought about it like this and somebody that actually kind of knows what you're doing in your life and where you're at in general, not just a total stranger, because I think that also makes a difference. Like I try to get to know y'all in your situations, in your lives and where you're at, and understand that somebody who has two young kids at home versus somebody who has grown kids that are out of the house versus a single person like everyone's lives are different and not everyone's business is the same versus a single person.

Speaker 3:

Like everyone's lives are different and not everyone's business is the same. And I mean just to that example, some of the curriculum stuff in the course was going and finding your money and doing the farmer's markets or the markets, those kind of things. And I read through that, took a bunch of or you know, watched the videos, took a bunch of notes and everything. But then we hopped on I think it was a group q and a call and you really helped me hone that to make it much more personal and much more actionable for me. So I had read that stuff and I have the notes sitting over here and now, when I look back at them and then with the information you give me, I'm like, okay, yes, I need to hop in that, I need to do this, I need to make sure I have that. My, my setup is set up this way. You know that kind of thing. So, yes, having a person is so much sex. Just then, you know just courses.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I started becoming the course person who'd buy the courses and I never watched anything because I was like I would get frustrated or I'd get overwhelmed and then I would just like shut it down and never look at it again, because I was like I need help. But who do I ask for help? Which is part of the reason I was like I don't want to be the person that just sells a course to somebody and is like here's the course, you're on your own, figure it out. It's just not my mo of what I love to do. And people are always like, hey, will you sell your course by yourself, by itself? And I'm like I really want you to have my help as you do it, cause that way you're more successful with what you do.

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, I completely agree with that, yeah, awesome.

Speaker 2:

Well, is there anything else you feel like you need to share with the world or tell the world? And if not, will you tell everyone where they can find you, so that way they can follow along with your journey and your business?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so most of my photography stuff is on my Instagram. That's just Liberato Photography. You'll see a lot of wedding stuff on there, but it's slowly becoming more and more family on there, so it'll slowly be changing. But besides that, I mean this whole coaching stuff helped me a lot, put me in the right direction and made me feel more comfortable stepping away from the wedding side of things, because it's really difficult, I think, to change gears at least it was for me and feel comfortable doing it.

Speaker 3:

I need somebody's help and I knew that Like I couldn't just do it myself. And it has made me feel more comfortable. And now I'm just working on all those, those, all those little goals that we put together and working towards everything. Well, hopefully in the next few months I can get my sales up to five 6,000 more, and I'm feeling more and more confident as I as I go along with with each sale and everything, cause that's been that was my biggest thing, I think is just man before call. Oh, getting pumped up, got to do some push-ups, got to get the blood flowing, even though they've been sold. I've talked about pricing and all this other stuff beforehand and it's not IPS Me, I'm just a worrier, that's not what I do, so I get more and more comfortable.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Got to get pumped up. You can hear my voice in the back of your head.

Speaker 3:

Just pumped up. You can hear my voice in the back of your head. Just good, on the call, it's going to be fine. My wife knew your voice because I listened to the podcast Once. I was in the course all the podcasts you did, because they were always just playing. They're like is that Corinda? I was like that's Corinda.

Speaker 2:

That's the weirdest thing to have people be like. My spouse knows exactly what your voice sounds like. I will say I think it's really funny because my coaching program is all like unicorn and sparkles and rainbows or whatever. But over the last year I've had like a good group, decent group of men who've joined my coaching program and I kind of laugh because I'm like I talk to people like at imaging or like trade shows and I'm like I talk to men come up and talk to me and I'm like I promise, although it's very like unicorny and purple and hot pink, like I promise, although it's very like unicorn-y and purple and hot pink, like I do have a lot like male coaching clients too. And there is a place for you in here, because I'm always afraid that my brand like turns men away because it's the unicorns and hot pink and purple stuff.

Speaker 3:

I don't think I noticed, I don't even know. I think because I heard you first.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And knew your….

Speaker 2:

It didn't matter, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Then when I got to the website I was like, okay, cool, he likes the new card.

Speaker 2:

Cool, you didn't notice it. That's good to know. I love that. Well, it was so good chatting with you and if any of y'all are ever in Colorado, y'all need to reach out to Austin to do your family portraits or your couple's portraits somewhere up at four. He does really cool studio stuff too. We're going to probably make a trip to Colorado this winter and I'm going to figure out how to get Austin to take our family portraits, because we have not had family portraits this year and we are much needed. So make sure y'all reach out to him if y'all are ever in the area. I'm sure he would love to connect and photograph you and your family and create something epic and sell you some wall art, I know some epic locations.

Speaker 2:

You know, that's the problem as somebody who convinces people to charge more money is that it backfires, because then the people I'm around start charging more money and it costs me so much more to work with them Even the person that does my hair. I convince her to charge me more money and all of a sudden I'm paying double what I used to pay Sign. You know Well, it was great chatting with you. Thanks for being on here today and I'm sure we'll see you again soon.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, this was fun, thanks.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to support the podcast, please make sure you share it on social media or leave a rating and review. As always, you can check out the links and resources in the show notes over at masteryourmindmoneycom. To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on Instagram at masteryourmindmoney, and don't forget to join our free Facebook group Photography Business. Tune Up with Corinna Kay. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.