All-In Wedding Photography

The 5 Things I’d Do Differently If I Started My Photography Business Today

• Alex Stead • Season 1 • Episode 12

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0:00 | 27:18

We dive deep into the five crucial things Alex would change if she could restart her wedding photography business, sharing hard-won wisdom from 15 years of experience shooting over 500 weddings.

If you're waiting to feel like you've figured it all out before starting your photography business, this is your permission slip to begin today! 

Starting a Wedding Photography Business

Speaker 1

I think the first thing I did that worked really well was a Facebook ad which was highly targeted with a call to action. I'm Alex, I'm Wren oh, you've been calling me Al today and I didn't like it. I didn't like it either. If I could turn back time.

Speaker 2

If I could turn back time.

Speaker 1

Oh my god, you sound just like her. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Okay, want to hear me do Kermit the Frog doing Trixie?

Speaker 1

doing homophobic shit I'd like nothing more.

Speaker 2

Why do they need a parade? Why do they need a parade? You sound just perfect.

Speaker 1

Thank you, that's great. Okay, if I were starting my business today, what would I do differently? That's what we're talking about today and you know what? Right, there's a lot. There's a lot of things.

Speaker 2

I do, you would do a lot differently. Yeah, I think I asked you this question a few episodes and you said nothing. It's all perfect.

Speaker 1

Sometimes I get really confident and it's fake, it's made up. So I have been here for a long time. I've been in the business for what like 15 years now. I've done like 500 weddings. Experience does not mean that I'm perfect, though I mostly made a lot of mistakes. So I'm here as your seasoned guide, walking you through the jungle that is starting a wedding photography business. I figured there was five things specifically, five specific things. I was like yeah, these are kind of the five things that I would definitely have done differently, so should I just jump in?

Stop Waiting to Be Good Enough

Speaker 2

Let's hear number one what you would do differently if you could turn back time, all right.

Speaker 1

So just like you and your singing, I wouldn't focus on being good enough.

Speaker 2

That's awful.

Speaker 1

So I think I put a lot, which I think is good. It's a hard thing to cross right, because a huge part of starting your business and becoming a photographer is learning how to actually shoot and take pictures. But I think there was times where I was like, if I don't know how to do this, I'm going to say no to the booking, versus saying yes and then learning it. So, for example, like I think a lot of photographers get stuck in like learning mode and instead of just being like, yeah, I'm going to do this thing because everything is figureoutable, they say no to opportunities or they hold themselves back. What do you do instead?

Speaker 1

So, instead of trying to like earn your spot, I think it's more important to like be really, really specific in the skills that you want to learn and learn them. So, if you're like I wish I knew how to use off-camera flash, for example, instead of always being like I wish I could do that, do it, learn it, do a course, go to a content shoot. One thing that I did do that I'm really glad I did was I did a lot of my own like content shoots or like style shoots. These weren't like paid things, they were just like me and friends getting together right, and like you find a dress at the thrift store, you use what you have and you make these content shoots happen. So, like whatever that looks like is, I would say, not letting your lack of knowledge hold you back, but instead really leaning into the pursuit of knowledge and skills.

Niching Down and Creating Money Shots

Speaker 1

All right so that's the first point. Hit us with the second. The second is I feel like this is controversial, but I would niche down way sooner. So the second that I said I am a wedding photographer. My bookings went through the roof.

Speaker 2

So you're saying that the niche is being a wedding photographer.

Speaker 1

Yeah, up until that point I had been kind of like I'm your you know your friendly neighborhood jack-of-all-trades photographer, like I'll photograph anything with a heartbeat. What's that? Bob's Burgers bit. They cut their finger on the pulse. No, they'll finger anything with a pulse no finger anything with a pulse.

Speaker 1

So, yeah, I was definitely like the kind of person I was doing newborns, I was doing grads, I was doing family shoots, I was doing maternity, I was doing weddings. I was doing like everything under the sun anything anyone asked me to do, I was doing. And I was posting all of that on my Facebook and on my Instagram accounts. The only thing that switched is I pulled up my Instagram account and I just archived everything that wasn't a wedding and I made my name on Instagram wedding photographer Alex Dead. How far in were you when you did that? Probably like a couple years. But I think if I had done that out the gate, like it, it was a huge, huge shift for me, just declaring that I was a wedding photographer and making that my brand.

Speaker 1

What holds people back I think a lot of people and well, I can only speak for myself really was that I was afraid I would lose all the other business. I was afraid that weddings wouldn't work out right and I was like, oh, I can't say I'm a wedding photographer because then people won't want me to do their families and newborns and maternities and stuff. And that's twofold because, on the one hand, like I've never really enjoyed doing newborn sessions. That's never been my thing, but I still got asked to do. I still do a lot of family sessions, a lot of other types of work.

Speaker 1

That work didn't disappear, but the weddings definitely took off. So they became way more my bread and butter men, because people started associating my name with weddings. So that was like people were like, oh, I need a wedding photographer. Like, oh, alex did, she is a wedding photographer, you should hire her. And just one more little tip on that of like how to do that is not only to like change your name on Instagram and make sure the work you're posting is all weddings, but learning a few little shooting tricks that make it really really easy to get like an amazing wow shot from each wedding. So these are just little things that made my work stand out from the crowd and like off-camera flash, using reflections, different things.

Speaker 1

I teach a lot of this in the All In Club Ways to get you. I call it the money shot. So I think calling myself a wedding photographer and learning how to get the money shot were kind of like in the same. What was your money shot? Or have you had many, many, every wedding would get a money shot? Okay. So what's an example of a money shot? Let's say it's like a rainy day wedding and you use off-camera flash to light the couple up from behind, to light the rain up.

Speaker 1

okay right or finding a puddle and using the reflection okay, right or well, you gotta join the club. No, tell me another. No, that's all you get. No. Another one idea was like um oh, smoke, um bombs, smoke bombs, yeah, and some things are like I don't know if I do that using car headlights. Car headlights is one that I did. That was a cool one. That was a cool one there's lots of different ways shooting from inside the wine cellar.

Speaker 2

Is that what you did at gypsy tea room before they?

Speaker 1

changed. Oh no, it was like through a little window in a wine cellar. Yeah, that was a cool one. So, yeah, I think just finding ways to like create that one real wow photo that people are going to share and it like it's not going to necessarily go viral, but it will mean like your couple's going to share it. I was going to comment and be like holy cow, that's the most incredible wedding photo I've ever seen?

Speaker 1

do you find couples like clients come to you and they're like this is the shot I want sometimes, yeah, and I think it's like, I think it's right, like you're not doing that for the whole day. You're pulling a trick out of your hat, basically.

Speaker 2

So I think, like, but they really work and people really like them and they're fun and it really tests your creativity, I find when I've been with you during wedding days, when you get the shot, you do a little shimmy, I do and you're like good, I got it. Yeah, it's like you relax for the like. It's not like you're not relaxed. It's true, I do. It's like you're like okay, I got the money shot, now I can just, like you, kind of go back to like documentarian.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Literally I'm like this is the photo they're going to frame for the wall and I know I got that the I'm always looking.

Speaker 2

I'm trying to get one good photo that I can post on my Instagram. The couple can put on their wall. We're all happy, All right, you're on to number three.

Speaker 1

Number three is that I would build systems before I felt ready. So I think there was a sense that I didn't take my business quite as seriously as I should have in the very beginning. I wasn't treating my business like a business, I was treating it like a hobby and therefore things fell through the cracks. So I feel like I was running around in circles for a long time, Like I was writing things down in notebooks and on sticky pads and like there was no organization and it was really stressful in my brain and everything was like a little bit different.

Speaker 1

Right, so you don't need to be busy to have a system. You should have a system first. So learning what systems you need for your business to be successful and putting them in place before you necessarily need them, I think is really important. You know, even things like once you get busy, it has become harder to put the effort into like doing stuff like that. You know this booking on this date, it's due this date, they're backed up on this hard drive. All that information like tracking, that is super, super important whether you're super busy or you have two bookings.

Speaker 2

It doesn't really matter like setting up the standard that you're going to hold yourself to early. A lot easier to set it up with less than 10 points than with 100.

Speaker 1

Yep and contracts. Also when they're in the systems, like having something in place in writing to know like what are you going to deliver? When are you going to deliver it? Knowing that you and the client are both on the same expectations there, that's also a really important system. I think that can often get lost in the tracks when you're really new Because you're just like oh, it's not a big deal, I'm not really a business, I don't need a contract, but that's like almost when you error, it's a lot easier to trial uh points in your contract with one or two people that it might not end up working out that you have this one clause or that then, once you've given the contract to 20 people, yeah, totally.

Speaker 1

And I like to shout out now, if you're wondering, like where to get contracts and stuff, the legal page is I use her stuff for a lot of things and she's fabulous. That's a person, the yeah, her name is page. This is the legal page. Is I use her stuff for a lot of things and she's fabulous. That's a person, the yeah, her name is page. This is the legal page. Um, she makes photography contracts yes, yellow pages yeah, the legal page.

Speaker 1

Um, she's incredible. She has like a free facebook group. That's really helpful. And also she, she makes legal contracts for photographers. They're for photographers. Yeah, she's so specific. Is she a photographer? I think maybe I'm not sure what her deal is. I should talk to her. I never talk to her. I just like buy her stuff, okay cool, but yeah, really valuable, worth the price, right, all right. What's next? Number four All right.

Speaker 2

Number four you would have picked one strategy and gone all in. Tell me about that.

Speaker 1

I think, in the beginning especially, I was doing a lot of things mediocrely in terms of marketing. So I feel like I was everywhere and I was trying all the things and I was putting a ton of time and a ton of energy and a ton of money into things that I didn't really know how to do. Okay, so I would have picked one funnel and learned it well. So instead of being like I gotta do SEO, I gotta do Instagram, I gotta do TikTok, I gotta do reels, I gotta do networking, I gotta do this. Like all the things blogging, I'm just like choosing a lane, learning it.

Speaker 2

I don't say mastering it, but like learning how to do it well, how would you know which lane to pick, though, if you hadn't tried a bunch of stuff?

Speaker 1

That's true. I think it is a matter of like, I think, like I kind of have to think of the next one, which is like finding, like a mentor and someone who is doing it well, because Russell.

Speaker 2

Brunson.

Speaker 1

Yeah, love, I love that nice Mormon man Heart. He says Does he know that he has two lesbians who are just his biggest fans? Like it's, like it shouldn't work, but it does.

Speaker 2

He says that you will probably do best marketing in an area that you enjoy consuming. Yeah, so if you love being on Instagram, there you go. Alex loved listening to podcasts. Yeah, so you were like okay, well, this makes sense, like you would listen to a podcast about wedding photography.

Speaker 1

Yeah, totally, and I think it's this matter of like more, more like building blocks rather than throwing bread out to feed ducks. Like, learn one thing, well, spend six months learning it, getting really good at it, seeing results from it. A lot of people, I think are like oh my god, I'm doing everything. I'm like run to the ground, marketing constantly. I'm always posting, I'm always doing this, I'm always doing that and I'm like but you're not doing anything. Well, you're not putting like none of these have strategy behind them. You are genuinely just throwing spaghetti at a wall. So, basically, all that just say like learn one thing, learn it really really well, wait to get results from it, tinker with it until you see results. And like learn from somebody, don't just, don't just try to do it on your own. Like Can you give me?

Speaker 2

some funnel examples that you've tried.

Speaker 1

Yeah, and I want to say try, Like a lot of them work, I just stack them. So instead of trying to do all of them at once, you learn one thing. You let it run and then you add another thing.

Speaker 1

So let's say what's the first one you tried? I would say like Instagram, I think that's most people's like Instagram, facebook, but what was the funnel you were using with Instagram? I think the first thing I did that worked really well, that's a good one Was a Facebook ad, okay, which was highly targeted with a call to action, so you used a Facebook ad.

Speaker 2

What was the? What was the graphic?

Speaker 1

What was the ad photo? It was, I think, like a carousel of photos. Okay.

Speaker 2

So a carousel of your work, yeah.

Speaker 1

And was there text over it? Not on the images, but there was like a call to action. That was like I'm a wedding photographer booking for this year, Message me.

Speaker 2

Oh, cool, yeah, and that led people to DM you through.

Speaker 1

Facebook. I think I was a link to a website, because it was years ago, right Like ads weren't quite as fancy as they are now, so it was like a www dot.

Speaker 2

Yeah, check me out at kind of thing. Okay, that's cool. And what is like your strongest funnel right now for winning bookings?

Speaker 1

right now is probably my instagram ad. Honestly, like it's what works, works right. Like I set this up years ago, I've tweaked it a ton and I've learned how to make it a lot better, but the the one that I use and the one that I teach is the $5 a day ad. So I teach it in the club, I teach all my students. So it's an ad you use through Instagram.

Speaker 2

It's a boosted post on Instagram and you spend $5 a day on it. Yep, and it is where most of your inquiries come from.

Speaker 1

Not most. At this point I've got a lot of different methods. I just like at this point I've got a lot of different methods, but it's a really power. It's a really powerful. It probably brings in like three to four bookings a month.

Speaker 2

Okay.

Speaker 1

So five times 30 is what Six? How much are we spending a month? What did you just say? Five times three, 15. 150 a month. 150 a month To bring in what's four times, to bring in about $16,000 a month. Wow, that's a decent return on investment.

Speaker 2

I think I mean, if it were a slot machine, I'd keep putting my honey in sure you know, let's say, if you were to join the club.

Speaker 1

But I teach you this method. It's like the money you spend from learning a good system and then the money you put into a good system repays itself. The power, the power of ad spend yeah, the power but, not just. Like you know, I have one of my students who came to me who was like I'm spending a thousand dollars a month on ads. I'm not getting anything from it well, you can't. Yeah, like the strategy matters yes, that's what I'm trying to say you can't outspend a bad strategy.

Speaker 1

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say picking a strategy. Can you, though, learning it well?

Speaker 2

maybe you can outspend a bad strategy, but a thousand1,000 isn't going to cut it, like you have to outspend the strategy by like, like $1,000 is a lot you have to be. Coca-cola. Yeah, so you use a $5 a day Instagram ad. Yeah, you have used a Facebook ad. You've tried just growing your accounts. There's others I know you've. I've learned a few from you, that I use SEO, google Ads networking.

Speaker 1

There's a lot of different ways to get.

Speaker 2

I've gotten bookings from Pinterest.

Trust Yourself and What I Did Right

Speaker 1

Yeah, pinterest is another one we use. There's a ton of little systems right. Moving on to the next one, which ties in funny enough, what is like? I'm saying like you need to, you know, find someone, learn from them. But I also would have trusted myself a lot more in the beginning. I think a huge thing that held me back was my own feeling of inadequacy in my own work. I think there was this idea that, like, someday it would come and it would all click. I'm like, oh well, when that day comes, I'll be a photographer, when that day comes I'll be a business and then I'll figure it all out. But like the process of figuring it out is you are creating and actively working towards creating that someday. So I feel like imposter syndrome delayed my growth more than any other mistake combined.

Speaker 2

Or do you still have imposter syndrome?

Speaker 1

Oh, hell yeah, Like more than anybody else I know.

Speaker 2

I win, I win.

Speaker 1

I have the worst. What is it? You can't tell me one mean thing that I haven't said to myself in the last 30 minutes. It's like I can think of a thousand mean things about you that you haven't even thought of. We're watching girls, girls rewatch. Yeah, I absolutely still have imposter syndrome, worse than anyone I know.

Speaker 2

Can you tell me one of it?

Speaker 1

Imposter syndrome. I do, I don't think I have it.

Speaker 2

I don't think you have it either. We're so different. I have the opposite, I have too much audacity.

Speaker 1

It's the idea that, like you don't belong at the table and that because you don't belong, you're just going to walk away, versus I think the opposite is maybe I don't belong at this table, but I'm going to pull up a seat anyway, because it's not about waiting until you're ready. It really is like jumping in when you're not ready.

Speaker 1

so, like the thing that the thing that has helped me the most with that is um, a lululemon tote bag once told me uh, do one thing a day that scares you do you do one thing a day? That scares you maybe not like outwardly, but like, yeah, a little bit, like I think about that a lot.

Speaker 2

I'm like, okay, like I gotta do scary things if it, if it's like making you, if you're getting, if you're like I really don't want to do that, like that's making me anxious, I don't, I'm not good enough to do that.

Speaker 1

You're like power through there's a difference between like intuition and discomfort. Because it's a new scenario, so like, if it's like an intuitive, like this is a bad situation with bad people. Like no, I'm not saying like, go against your natural instincts.

Speaker 2

It's just a bunch of girlies going on like a nature walk with their cameras.

Speaker 1

But yeah, but being like you know if there is a walk or like a bunch of photographers getting together, they invite you, don't write yourself out of the room.

Speaker 1

I remember one early situation like this that I think of is um, I got an inquiry to do photos for a magazine feature when I was like brand new. I probably been taking pictures for like like less than a year, like six months, and they, yeah, we need you to do photos for this magazine. And I was like God and a huge part of me just wanted to say no. But then I was like you know what? They reached out because they've seen my work and they think I'm capable. They're not reaching out randomly, like this is a job, and they want me to do it because they think I'm capable of it. So before I said yes and then I practiced, I set up like a fake little yoga studio in my living room, right, and I learned how to use the lights and I set it all up and I figured it all out at home so that when I went to the shoot I felt prepared and capable already.

Speaker 2

You've had the experience and it is an easy job to say yes to. It doesn't feel like the best opportunity. It just feels like a day of work. Yeah, and that's what I would put on my Lululemon tote bag.

Speaker 1

So those are the five things that I wish I had done differently, and I speed through them, speed through them. Okay, I wouldn't focus on being good enough before I got started. I would have niched into weddings sooner and built a brand around that. I would have built systems before I really needed them. I would have picked a marketing strategy and learned it very, very well. I would have trusted myself more.

Speaker 2

All right, alex, that's all the things that you would have done differently. Yeah, there's got to be things that you did perfect. You would just do again the same. Can you tell me about those?

Speaker 1

Yeah. So we don't want to say perfect, but some things that I did that I'm proud of and I think I did right where I did not spend very much money on gear. I was really, really stingy with my equipment and I would wait until I felt like I had truly outgrown a piece of gear before replacing it. For example, I was using a prosumer camera for longer than most people probably would have, because I was like I don't actually know how to use this. It doesn't make sense to upgrade the camera while I'm still learning it. So until I was actually noticing that it was holding me back, I kept with the gear that I started with and I bought everything used. I didn't know like. I had two camera, like two bodies, two lenses, two flashes was pretty much my setup for a long time and I wasn't like going ham on buying new stuff.

Speaker 2

So until you were, using a piece of gear to its full potential, super comfortable with it. You weren't looking at new gear, all right, yeah. What else did you do?

Speaker 1

right. I think like investing in my education right from the get-go I'm really happy with and that didn't always mean like money, but like I hired coaches, I went to retreats, I did online courses. I also just like reached out to mentors. Like anything that I could find I devoured, like I put a ton of energy and any money that I think most people were spending on gear. I was spending on education. Yeah, would you have listened to this podcast? Oh, 100% Like this podcast is for me at 17, right, aww, yeah, and like one thing I remember really specifically was there was a live, creative, live taping in Seattle.

Speaker 2

Okay.

Speaker 1

With my dream photographer and at that point I had listened and watched to everything she had ever put out, like I had spent the hundred dollars. Sue Bryce, I know her name. I love Sue. I'm still obsessed with Sue. Our styles are so different but her methodology and everything she's incredible. So she was doing a live, creative live, and I applied as a student and I didn't get in. And then I wrote her personally and I was like, sue, do you need models for this? I'll come. And she was like, girl, that's a long way to go for one photo. And I was like I'll do it. So I booked a flight to Seattle from Newfoundland, which is an expensive flight, I think because of the audacity, she let me sit in on the whole week of classes, really yeah. So I still got to experience it.

Speaker 2

And you were 17?.

Speaker 1

Yeah, or 18. I had just graduated high school. Wow, and that was an incredible. I mean, that was money I did not have. Actually, I think I had gotten scholarships and I had spent my scholarships on that trip First university. Yeah, like any cash scholarship I got, I put towards this trip. Wow, but that was how invested I was into this. I was like this is going to be so important to put myself in the rooms of these people, right.

Speaker 2

So you did retreats, you hired coaches, online courses, so you were just consuming everything and anything you could get your hands on.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Even though I had a lot of imposter syndrome, I did bank on my success. I was like this is going to pay off. You were betting on it. I was betting on it.

Speaker 2

With your university scholarships Not the last time you spent a university scholarship on this, I think every time I've ever gotten a scholarship or a grant because didn't you get one in business school and it was like a cash one or something and it was meant to be for your books and stuff and you like. Went to a retreat, yeah, a photography retreat, yeah, but you were in business and what are you now? You were a business owner, photographer I would do.

Speaker 1

These are things I did, right. I would not change anything about this.

Speaker 2

No, God, no, you did that right Like you finished business school with a business, exactly.

Speaker 1

That's it Totally. And the last thing I think that I did right.

Speaker 1

I think there's only three things here, so it was like it was not spending my money on gear, spending my money on education.

Speaker 1

And the third thing was taking my camera everywhere and making it a priority to take pictures and be creative and just make sure that that was a like it was an extension of me and not worrying too much about the money at that point, like it wasn't, like I wasn't charging my friends for this service because I was getting more out of it.

Take Your Camera Everywhere and Be Cringy

Speaker 1

This was me reaching out to people like, hey, can we go find a dress at the thrift store and can we do the style shoot? And they were like, yes, before people pay you with their money, they pay you with their time, totally so any of my friends who, like you, know if I wanted to practice couples posing, I was finding my friends who had boyfriends and being like, hey, can we get you dressed up? Learning those new skills was the most important thing and then also having content to show that was the style that I wanted to be producing. I wasn't being beheld to a client's dreams or like wishes. It was like this is the work that I want to produce and I want to be doing which makes sense and sharing what you want to shoot.

Speaker 2

So you're going around with your camera? Yeah, do people make comments? Yeah, it was like the thing, it was funny. It was funny. Do you feel like? I feel like it's vulnerable. You kind of use it like a bit of a shield, right, I feel the opposite. Yeah, like you do seem like most comfortable when you're walking around with camera. Was it always that way, even when you were new?

Speaker 1

Yeah, Okay, it is a way to experience the world. It's like putting on a costume or, like you know, like getting dressed up. It's like this is I'm putting on a personality.

Speaker 2

That personality is photographer what do you think about? Have you heard that there are people who like they're like, oh, it's like cringy or awkward to bring around my camera and be trying?

Speaker 1

you know what I'm gonna say to that? Say it be cringy. I love being cringy. People who are being cringy are the people who are doing interesting, fun things. You know who's not cringy People who are boring People's friends and families.

Speaker 2

when you start getting into something and you care about it, it's kind of a target Get a new family. It can be a bit of a target for people. Everybody's got somebody in their family. They're nervous about wearing their camera around. Yeah, I think honestly the biggest thing is, people get intimidated because they don't want to be photographed. Do you think?

Speaker 1

that's where the comments come from probably, yeah, yeah yeah, I wonder if there's also a little bit of like manifestation there where, like when you're wearing your camera around, you're stepping into the persona of a photographer. It really is like saying to the universe that, like, no matter this, this comfort, I am stepping into this, like I am actively manifesting it, like wearing your camera around before you are a photographer is pulling that timeline to you.

Speaker 2

You know, I feel like I would just be waiting, bracing myself for the like oh what you got there. You're going to be a photographer, are you?

Speaker 1

Yeah, and it's just like yeah yeah, yeah, I am, I'm trying this thing out. It's fun, I'm really enjoying it.

Speaker 2

Yeah you want a picture for tinder?

Speaker 1

yeah, right picture for your facebook, for your tinder. So, yeah, I think like to wrap this up. If you're still waiting to feel like you figured it out, this is your permission slip. Like you do not need to go back, you don't need to start over. You just need to like choose today. This is what you're going to do, and hopefully these little tips helped you feel more confident in starting. If I could turn back time,