Audrey went from burnt out wedding photographer to a $2500 portrait average

Summary

In this conversation, Christa interviews Audrey Grace, a photographer with 14 years of experience. Audrey shares her journey in the industry and how she has specialized in wedding and newborn photography. She discusses the challenges of balancing her photography business with being a mom and the need for a change in her business model. Audrey talks about her decision to offer products and albums and the initial fear of rejection from clients. She shares how working with Christa and implementing a new business model has tripled her profits and allowed her to spend more time with her family. Audrey's average portrait session rate has increased from $500-$690 to $2000, and her newborn portrait average is now $2900. She emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries and not feeling guilty when she is working or spending time with her children. The conversation concludes with Audrey sharing her Instagram handle for those interested in connecting with her.

Takeaways

• Balancing a photography business with being a mom can be challenging, and it's important to find a business model that supports both.
• Offering products and albums can be a profitable addition to a photography business, even if the photographer is not comfortable with sales.
• Implementing a new business model can lead to increased profits and more time with family.
• Setting boundaries and not feeling guilty when working or spending time with family is crucial for work-life balance.

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Transcript

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Christa (00:00.532)
So excited for today's episode because I am here with one of my favorite students, Audrey Grace. Welcome Audrey. And I am going to have her share. She has such an incredible journey. Audrey, you've been in the industry now for how long?

Audrey McCloud (00:09.478)
Hi.

Audrey McCloud (00:17.48)
14 years. Yeah I was thinking of that today. I was like wait a minute. Yeah this fall will be 14 years since I photographed my first wedding so yeah.

Christa (00:19.24)
Wow.

Yes!

Christa (00:29.682)
Wow, amazing. So Audrey, with Audrey Grace photo, tell me a little bit just about your business and what you specialize in. Would love to hear.

Audrey McCloud (00:41.224)
Yeah, I'm so excited. So yeah, I've been a photographer for over 14 years. I photographed my first wedding when I was in college and I actually went to school for photography. I got my degree in commercial photography, which was amazing, really fun. And so one of my friends said, hey, you wanna photograph a wedding with me? And I was like, absolutely.

Christa (00:56.039)
wow.

Audrey McCloud (01:09.69)
And I had no idea what I was doing. You know, just showed up so excited. And, you know, so I've been photographing weddings and portraits over the years, and I absolutely love it. I also photograph a lot of newborn sessions. So, you know, when those wedding, when those wedding couples, you know, they've been married for a while, they have their first baby, oftentimes I get to photograph their, their baby

Christa (01:27.386)
Yes.

Christa (01:37.512)
I love that.

Audrey McCloud (01:38.908)
Yeah, that's been a really fun part of my business.

Christa (01:43.772)
It is. It's like very full circle when you get to be in the wedding industry that long. And I think that Audrey, some photographers are like, but I've done just a wedding so long. And I'm like, if they have trust with anyone at this point, like it's you. how amazing to be able to like be that photographer for that next milestone. I love

Audrey McCloud (02:00.356)
yeah, yeah. No, it's amazing. And you get to see them grow up and it's almost like you're this like extended aunt, you know, with the camera that photographs, you know, the little babies and it's very sweet.

Christa (02:09.764)
Yes, exactly. Yep, it is. And the kids grow up and just know you. It's really cool. So tell me about a little bit, Audrey, like personally, what goes on for you, like what your other responsibilities are.

Audrey McCloud (02:25.384)
Yeah, so, you know, I've been married for almost eight years to my husband, Derek, and we have two little boys. We have an almost three -year -old and a one -year -old boy, and they are very sweet and very much a handful at times. Very busy. Any mom of toddlers know, you know, you can't just leave them in a room and get work done at all.

Christa (02:38.558)
Yes. Yeah.

Audrey McCloud (02:53.52)
You know, I have the little babies and you know, that's kind of my current world right now. Everything that I do is focused on them, which is great. You know, for years in my business, always knew that I wanted to be a mom. So I always knew, okay, how am going to get to a place where my photography business is serving my family in a way that, you know, I don't want to be working all the time.

And I certainly don't wanna quit photography. That just would not make sense for me if you know me. I love photography. So I've been working throughout the years to grow my business in a way that could support being a mom and watching my boys and not having

have a full -time nanny or daycare, that kind of thing, because that just didn't really fit us.

Christa (03:51.058)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah, absolutely, Audrey. That makes complete sense. I love that. So you are home with them a lot and building your business. Yeah, that's amazing. And I think that's what so many moms are wanting, but let's talk Audrey just about kind of when you and I connected, where you were at, which I know we connected last January, but like when things kind of came to like something has to change, like what was going on for you?

Audrey McCloud (04:02.764)
yeah.

Audrey McCloud (04:21.404)
Yeah, you know, I had just come back from maternity leave, having my second baby. I was getting back into weddings. I had my first wedding. It was maybe like five weeks after I had my baby. And I knew like I cannot be photographing weddings every weekend to keep my business afloat. Especially when you have little babies at home, there's this almost like heaviness.

of knowing are they okay? Are they going to be okay while I'm gone all day? You can't just leave a wedding. And so I was also photographing portraits and that was a really fun part of my business but I had not really focused much time or attention into that but I really enjoyed it. And so I knew either I'm going to have to put push pause on my business in order to be a good mom

Christa (04:51.646)
Hmm. Yeah.

Audrey McCloud (05:19.352)
or something's going to have to change. And one, either I'm going to have to book more to make it worth my time. And that just wasn't in the cards. You know, I can't be booking more. There's no way. So I knew something had to change and I knew, you know, I had seen photographers offer products and offer albums and make a, have a profitable business doing

Christa (05:26.302)
Mm, great.

Audrey McCloud (05:49.106)
but it's very daunting to me. I do not like cells. do not, I'm not a celzy person at all. And so that was just not very appealing for me for so many years. I've avoided that. do like, I have liked to help others, you know, with albums, with wall portraits. I've done it before, but it wasn't something like, I want to focus on this because I just felt.

really like confused by it, overwhelmed by it. So, you know, I had seen some of your work and how you are helping photographers break into a new level of their business where they're offering products and albums and you made it so easy and fun. And I was like, okay, that sounds, that sounds interesting. I like how you are approaching it. You're not like this old grandpa.

Christa (06:39.11)
Yeah.

Audrey McCloud (06:48.844)
selling pictures, you know, you're like a young hip, cool photographer. And that really resonated with me because I could see myself doing something similar. And I really wanted that. I wanted that for my, not just my family from a financial aspect, but for my clients, for my families to offer that. So yeah.

Christa (06:50.546)
Right, yep, yep. my goodness.

Christa (07:09.876)
Right.

Christa (07:13.886)
Yeah, absolutely. So kind of coming to that point, Audrey, I think you just to kind of go through those main points of like, I can't just book more and more and more and more. And you have a newborn. I know our babies were born within months, months of each other. And I remember those beginning months and you can't get anything done. And I tried and I like, it's hard. And some of those are almost a little bit dark. The times I did try to work and shouldn't have like, it's hard. Yeah. And yeah.

Audrey McCloud (07:40.112)
It is so hard. Yeah, you're already sleep deprived. And, and then, you know, my time that I had to myself to work on photography stuff was mostly after they went to bed. And that was at night. And you know, if you're a new mom, you just, know, you have like mom brain and you have nothing else to give. You're just, your brain is mush at that point.

Christa (07:54.312)
Right? Yeah.

Christa (08:00.834)
yeah.

Christa (08:06.152)
It

Audrey McCloud (08:06.8)
And so, you know, I knew then I was like, okay, I cannot, I can't be staying up late working all the time. I can't be up all night editing photos, especially when you see, you know, on the gallery, you'll see when people download their pictures. I was working myself to the bone trying to edit photos, get them delivered quickly. And you know, that email would not get read for a couple of days.

Christa (08:34.654)
Right, right.

Audrey McCloud (08:35.932)
or people would not download their photos. They would download five and you just delivered a bunch of great photos and you're like, what's the point? What's the point of this? You know, I'm working myself to the bone for people to download five pictures and not print them. What? So.

Christa (08:49.854)
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Audrey, tell me what were your rates at before for a portrait session with

Audrey McCloud (09:00.808)
Yeah, so a portrait session for me before was anywhere from like 500 to 690 was what I was charging. And I was giving away so much.

Christa (09:07.72)
Okay. Yeah.

Yes. Like so much that you're like, okay, there should be, yeah, there should be a higher price tag on what I'm doing here.

Audrey McCloud (09:16.412)
So many photos, so many pictures.

Yeah, and I knew I was like, I could either raise my price, even if I had doubled that price point for what I was offering, I still would not be seeing the results that I'm seeing now, which is amazing. Isn't that crazy?

Christa (09:40.948)
It is. And I think Audrey, I'd love for you to speak on this. One of the things I hear the most from seasoned photographers like you, or I wasn't 14 years in, but I was several years in when I did make this pivot is, Krista, I'm so worried about those clients I have been serving in the past years and shifting to a business model, which like Audrey said, it's not just doubling or tripling the price and slapping that on the same thing. It's adding more. And we'll talk about that in a second.

But it's shifting to a fuller experience where they're actually able to walk away with more. Thus, they often do spend a lot more. And I have photographers that get really concerned about walking their clients through a new process who are established. Talk about the response with your clients and maybe the nose that you got. And if that was worth it, I'd love to hear.

Audrey McCloud (10:29.308)
Yeah, no, I knew going in that this is going to be a change in my business. And I knew my focus was this is going to be for my family. This is for my boys. And so when you say yes to something else, you're saying no to your family. So I had to keep that in the forefront of my mind when I was getting feedback from past clients.

And some clients were great about it. were gung ho. They were like, this is amazing. I'm so excited. This is awesome. And not everyone was like that. And I just had to be okay with that, you know, with that almost like rejection and knowing like it's not me and moving, keep moving forward. And so I think for me saying like, okay, like, I'm sorry, I cannot.

sacrifice my time with my family in order to give you everything for like such a cheap price. I can't do that anymore. And so it was an interesting shift, but it opened the door to so many new clients who might not have worked with me beforehand because my prices were lower, but they were drawn.

Christa (11:36.382)
Right.

Audrey McCloud (11:55.066)
to the fact that I was full service and that I offered wall art and albums and they were excited and working with them was so eye opening to the fact that not only they appreciate my time and my work, but also it's not a huge sacrifice now because this session is gonna make up

Christa (12:01.256)
I love

Audrey McCloud (12:24.922)
me doing like five of my previous price old sessions. And so that was giving me more time with my family. When you look at it that way, you know, it becomes easier to move forward when you have a change like that. So.

Christa (12:28.764)
Yeah. Yeah.

Christa (12:42.708)
That's amazing. So your average before, you said was around that 500 to 690 range. And I we started together in January, which was about six months ago. What is your average now Audrey for a portrait session?

Audrey McCloud (12:56.2)
Yeah, so my portrait session average right now is around 2000. My newborn portrait average is around 2900, which is great. You hear these success stories of photographers getting to these places and you're like, there's no way, there's no way I could do that. And then you have it happen and you're like, okay, this is great. All right.

Christa (13:07.527)
Yeah.

Christa (13:12.914)
Right. Right.

Christa (13:21.982)
Yeah. And it takes Audrey, I think that scary step, especially for those of us seasoned of like, something has to change. And change is super scary when you've been doing the same thing when all the other education and mentors have kind of pushed you one direction and you're like, that's just like not working for me. So for you Audrey, I know that this was still a big decision like for you and your husband to like not.

And not just like financially, but even just to make this shift in your business from what you had been doing for over a decade. Can you speak to that a little bit? Like what was the push that you were like, all right, like I'm

Audrey McCloud (13:58.448)
Yeah, no, for sure. know for so many years I've tried selling, you know, different products and I thought, you know, maybe I'll, you know, I'll sell more on my online gallery and you know, I'll push that. I'll do these pretty emails and I'll do like a Black Friday sale and I'll see if people, they'll buy online. People are used to that. And

just not seeing results from that. You know, can only try so much. And I think there's that fear in photographers of saying, if I offer this, there's a chance that I could hear no, and I don't want, that's so icky. And so being okay with hearing no and just pushing yourself forward, I think that was huge for me moving forward. And so, yeah,

Christa (14:41.769)
Yeah.

Audrey McCloud (14:54.67)
I knew something had to change and I was really excited about your course because of everything that you go through and offer. I knew I wasn't going to be alone doing this. I knew you have done this as well. And I don't know if many people realize this, but you, you are still in the industry. You're still photographing people and you're still doing sales

Christa (15:18.609)
yeah.

Audrey McCloud (15:23.612)
you know, having a coach who's teaching you how to do something and they're still doing it. That was huge for me. You see a lot of educators who stop doing things, stop doing photography to teach, and they're just not current. They're not current in the industry. They don't know what people need. You know, I've heard, I don't know you've heard the saying, those who can't teach. And so,

Christa (15:41.576)
Yeah, I get

Audrey McCloud (15:52.302)
You see that, you know? And so I knew, okay, she can do this because Chris does, you know, she's still doing it. And so that was a huge factor for me looking into changing my business was seeing, okay, you've done this, you've tried it. Other photographers have done this and tried it and it's worked. Why not? So why

Christa (15:52.488)
That's hilarious. Yeah, totally.

Christa (16:16.948)
Yeah. Yeah. Like why not me? And for you Audrey, I know we were talking your first six months of 2023, I know you mentioned you were obviously going through a pregnancy and everything, but still we're shooting. How much did you bring in in 2023? So last year, January through

Audrey McCloud (16:36.296)
Yeah, I think it was around 10 ,000, a little over 10 ,000 last year. And I was in hustle mode. I don't know if you guys have ever, you know, if you're getting ready to have a baby, you know, there's a certain point where you have to stop shooting. And so I was just booking everything I could. I was saying yes to everything. I was photographing things that I didn't really enjoy.

Christa (16:50.802)
yeah.

Yup.

Audrey McCloud (17:04.614)
And I was just like, I gotta get ready for this baby. We gotta hustle. We gotta save money. And that, was just not as profitable. so, yeah.

Christa (17:19.668)
Absolutely. And so then you did about, I think you had told me exactly around like 10 ,700 last year, the first six months. This year first six months, starting uncapped in January, what did you do?

Audrey McCloud (17:32.584)
Yeah, so I started in Uncapped in January, started applying it more in the spring and started seeing results around then. And my profit has more than tripled. I reached around the 36 ,000 mark with my photography revenue. Yeah.

Christa (17:51.284)
That's amazing. And you had told me last year, Audrey total for the year you brought in like 26 K and then this year you're not like not even halfway through it. did 35 K. That's amazing. Wow. Wow. That girl, I love it. But I also want to touch on again, like being a mom, know is obvious. Like if you know Audrey and talked to her, like that is the most important thing to you, know? And so I'd love to talk to you about like, what has that shift brought like you and your family?

Audrey McCloud (18:02.15)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Christa (18:20.166)
outside of business.

Audrey McCloud (18:22.47)
Yeah, you know, having that freedom to not take on every photo shoot that inquires, there's a lot of pressure. You know, when you're a photographer and a mom, I feel like you don't, there's this pressure of like, I don't want to have this just be a very expensive hobby. And, and I really wanted to contribute to our family financially.

Christa (18:44.067)
Right?

Audrey McCloud (18:52.464)
I know that's not the case for every person, but for me, that was a huge goal. I really wanted my husband to not have to work so much. And I wanted us to spend time at home with our kiddos and not be working all the time, gone every weekend. And so right now, you know, we have weekends, we have, you know, a lot of time back, which is great, which is amazing. I know as well, like if I am going to go photograph,

any kind of session, I know it's going to be worth my time. And I don't feel a sense of guilt of, I'm only making this much from this. And now I feel like the sky is the limit with what I can make from portraits. And that's changed my whole perspective of work. And so, you know, one thing too, that's really

been amazing is, when I am working and I've set a time to work, I don't feel as much guilt about not being with my boys. And if you're a mom, you know this when you're working, you're thinking, I should be a mom. And then when you're watching your children, you're like, I really got to do this work. It's like a struggle. And so I know now when I am hanging out with my boys, watching them, hanging and we're playing

Christa (20:07.07)
Mm -hmm.

Audrey McCloud (20:21.926)
I don't feel guilt of, need to go work. I need to go make money because there's more set boundaries now, which is great. Yeah.

Christa (20:33.31)
I love that Audrey. Well, I'm so excited for you. And as I told you before, when we were talking, like you and your husband need to take a special celebration just for this. like you, for anyone listening, that's like, this is amazing. Like Audrey did the work. She showed up. She obviously went through the materials. First of all, applied it. You, you really pushed past the nose

Audrey McCloud (20:41.49)
Yes.

Christa (20:56.988)
It's so quadri that like the sky is the limit. Your average can just keep going up. Your income can keep growing and it doesn't mean shooting more to make that happen. So I'm so proud of you. tell us where can people connect with you like on socials and see your gorgeous work. We'd love to hear.

Audrey McCloud (21:13.104)
Yeah, of course. If you guys want to, my Instagram is Audrey Grace photo. And that's where I loved hanging out and posting and sharing, you know, my work, but sometimes behind the scenes, you know, of life.

Christa (21:27.428)
Yes, I love that. And I'll put that in the show notes, but Audrey, I'm just so glad that we got to hang out and chat today. You are such an incredible mama and an incredible business owner and you're killing it. And thank you for taking the

Audrey McCloud (21:41.212)
Yeah, thank you so much. This was awesome. This was great.