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Darty: [00:01] This is Darty Heinz and you are listening to from nothing to profit.

Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit photographers podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Welcome everybody. We are so excited today

Kia: [00:23] to be interviewing Darty Heinz and Heinz is the co owner of the senior portrait conference sync, which is. Oh Gosh, what is it? Seniors

Darty: [00:37] Senior and Youth national conference. Be original player. Okay.

Kia: [00:40] So sync. And it was originally senior and youth national conference and it is a actually right now my favorite conference to go to every year. Uh, I love photographing high school seniors and spending time with photographers that have been in it for awhile or are very, uh, are new, but they’re very committed to their photography business and Darty and his wife Michelle run that has a social and media marketing expertise with his multiple businesses and he lives in Pennsylvania and I know Darty from when he won. The senior photographers have senior photographer of the year nationally. Um, I don’t know how many years ago that was, but I was very impressed with him and actually I just thought of this, my first class that I ever attended for photographers to you were there and I wasn’t even a photographer yet at the time.

Matt: [01:34] Let me, let me tell my story.

Kia: [01:36] Okay, sorry. Sorry. Okay. Matt, you go.

Matt: [01:38] So the first class I ever attended and the industry was Darty and Coleen’s a three day jumpstart class before imaging like 11 years ago. So we had just gotten to the industry, we’re in there maybe like three months and using like our startup money to figure out what we’re doing. And we’re like well we need to go to imaging. And I was like, well we should do these econ classes so we can go there as long as possible. And so I signed up for three days with you guys and you were the, you were the first real, like you were the fundamental building block of our business because like you set us on a course and those three days to do what we’re doing now, which is really cool.

Darty: [02:15] Oh man, this is a great way to start off my week. Thanks to both of you guys. This is awesome. It’s funny because I was online. They have a big surprise. I was online, I was online on like about a week or so ago and somebody tagged me in a post. They were talking about education and somebody actually said the words that I changed their life forever and I was just like, you know, you don’t really know what kind of impact you have on people when you’re doing, when you’re speaking, when you’re running educational events and you’re doing presentations and things like that. Like you really, you know, you gotta really be careful what you say from a main states because you are really impacting people’s lives and they’re making changes in their businesses that really could impact their life forever. Good or bad.

Kia: [03:01] Yeah. That’s the truth. So I’m a Darty. What we want to know from you after we’ve better do up like that is, um, tell us from your vantage point, what is your of expertise or what are you known for?

Darty: [03:19] Well, I think, um, I think I’m known for two things. If we go back a few years, you know, I’ve been in this industry for about 25 years, so I’ve kind of seen it all. I’ve seen film to digital to iphones, you know, so kind of been around for a long time. So I think if we go back a few years and we go back maybe 15 years. Um, I think I was known for the guy that did all the really cool sets with the high school seniors. We built really elaborate scenes inside of a studio to, you know, do our, our high school senior photography on. So I think at that point I was known for that. And then I would say in more recent years I’ve kind of switched my focus when it comes to what we’re doing educationally. I spoke last year at imaging USA and I’ve done doing some state conventions recently and it’s been doing more social media marketing, which is, you know, when I taught just a few seconds ago about the girl who tagged me in a post on facebook. That’s exactly why she said she goes, I put in place some of the things that you talked about marketing that really changed my business. I think I prefer to be known that way because I read that because that’s really what I love. I love the, I love social media. I love marketing. I mean those are like two of my favorite things to kind of teach about. So I would say that’s currently where my expertise is, is social media marketing.

Kia: [04:35] I forgot you and I just taught a class on social media marketing together. Yeah, exactly. It was a quick, quick little one, but yeah.

Darty: [04:44] Yeah. Okay. So tell us right now kind of what you think is working now in our industry or even in your business with your sink conference and stuff like that. What you think is working now that people can implement in their business. Yeah, I think we’re going to talk a little bit more general because um, if you know me or know what I’m doing recently, I’m not really doing photography full time at this point. So I’ve kind of stepped back from that a little bit. I’m not saying that I’m not doing it ever again or I’m not doing it on occasion, I’m just, it’s just not my full time business right now. So I think for me as we do this podcast today, I want to talk a little bit more. It’s going to be more about small business with photography and mine obviously because like I’ve said, I’ve been doing it for 25 years.

Darty: [05:28] So kind of what’s working right now for us is really sounds kind of simple, but really just listening to our clients, you know, I think that for business owners, we were really quick to jump in on a trend without really checking in with our clients sometimes and asking them, is this a direction that you would like us to go? It’s not that you have to follow their, you, it’s not that you’re going to say, okay, well that client said no. So I’m not going to do that. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying we need to learn to listen to what they want. Um, I see this a lot where people are saying, you know, well, my clients don’t want prints and a lot of times one of the things I want to ask them is, did you ask your clients if they weren’t prints?

Darty: [06:16] You know, my client only wants digital. Does that, what did they tell you they only want digital or have you not educated them to understand what you can do for them as the expertise in your business? You know, a lot of times I think we forget that our clients have hired us because we’re the experts at something and so it’s our job to make sure that as the expert, we’re leading them in the direction that we want a, our clients to go and be. We’re leading them towards our first sales because the bottom line is we’re still trying to get sales from things. So a lot of times we just need to learn to listen a little bit more. Even with sync, you know, we do, we do surveys at the end of the, at the end of the show and all the attendees can give their opinions on things.

Darty: [07:03] And you know, and I can’t do anything that your bed was lumpy at the resort that I can’t do anything about, but I can do something about the fact that maybe the print competition, the shipping is really expensive and it costs a lot to do prints and things like that so I can make changes that the majority of people are asking for, you know, and that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for golden nuggets from when you listened to your clients, you’re looking for golden nuggets that will help you create a better experience for them in the long run.

Darty: [07:36] No, that makes complete sense. And I think some of the best years of our best. Yeah, I guess years or quarters in our business is when we had a really good clients that gave us feedback. And so what that tells me is like, okay, if I got really good feedback and that made me a better photographer for, you know, from that point on, I should probably just seek out that advice because not everybody is the personality that’s just going to hand it to you. Correct? Correct. Now as survey, after you do your event and then you read through every response and then think through that or how do you get your feedback that you’re using? Yeah, I actually, I use survey monkey. You can even use that as a small business owner. Like I used the paid version because we get with the free version you can get just um, you can do 100 responses for free, like another word you can get.

Darty: [08:31] You can ask her questions and 100 people can reply to that survey and you can get that for free. If you get up more than 100 responses, then you have to go to a paid version. Um, I did a paid version because we always get more than 100 people that respond and I honestly literally read every single survey that comes in. So 400 surveys come in. I will read all 400 of them. I’m going to be completely honest. The majority of them are obviously they’re complimentary, but what happened at the event? But I’m really looking for that one or two things and those and those 400, if I can find two really good ideas to help make our experience, the clients experience better at sink, that’s what I’m looking for. I’m just looking for those one or two really good things. I go, Oh, you know what, I never thought about that. That is perfect. That’s what we should be doing, you know, and it happens is some, uh, definitely happens and people will see that when they come to the event or when they come to do business with us, Bill see that suggestion that they’ve made implemented. And there’s been times even from the stage I’ve said, you know, what, you see this change. This is because of the survey. We’ve done this change because people have requested that.

Matt: [09:41] That’s really smart. Okay. So real quick, we’re just, while we’re on the subject, so there’s, some of our listeners are not going to know exactly what sync is. I mean we introduced it but basically it’s a big conference. Not a giant conference, but I’ve really healthy sized conference. But. So it’s like, I’m trying to describe it. So in Sandestin, Florida, and it’s

Darty: [09:59] normally like February, March, right? Is when you guys shoot for. Yeah, we were always usually right around that last weekend of February. Sometimes depending on how the year falls, we’d go into that first weekend in March like this for 2019. That will be March one through four. Um, and yeah, it’s a conference. Um, we have classroom education, we do have some small group and some little hands on things that happen in the evenings. I have a really nice trade show. It’s really built to bring together professional portrait photographers who specialize in high school senior portraits. We do have some other programming, whether it’s on other topics or other industry related things like sports or children or teenagers, you know, but the focus of it as high school senior photography people come from all over United States, um, and it’s, you know, three and a half days and you’re in Destin, Florida and it’s really just a really strong community of creative entrepreneurs who have come together that really want to share and help elevate and lift in India the industry. Yet

Matt: [10:56] I started going maybe like three, four years ago. Three, yeah, three or four years ago. And at first I was, I got there and I was like kind of intimidated for the first opening night, like get together thing which was, you know, you guys do a really good job with. And I was like, wow man, everybody knows everybody. And I was like, you know, this is really interesting in like within the next day I felt so included. And then now I totally feel like part of the family, you know, like in the facebook group and stuff like that. Like it’s so cool the community that you’ve built, like conferences or cool and education is cool, but the community that you have built is probably one of the best things we have in our industry. Thanks. Appreciate that.

Kia: [11:31] Yeah, and I feel like one of the things that when I’m there it’s like, like you said, it’s a pretty safe place. And so I communicate with. I feel like I just get a lot like emotionally, mentally for myself and so, you know, just being somewhere warm somewhere peaceful that time of year I feel like I really always come away with some great new things that I’m going to be doing.

Darty: [11:54] Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so Darty. What is one thing that you are most fired up about in the photography industry today? Well, you know, I was talking to Michelle about this the other day. We were out running around and I said, you know, I’m doing a podcast coming up. And she’s like, yeah. She goes, hi, are you ready? I said, I am, but I said that I’m kind of stumped on. One of the questions is what are you fired up about the industry? And she right away said, I think that’s easy. I think what I’m fired up about right now is that the industry has a lot of hopes and when I started thinking about that, I was like, you know what, you are right. You know, that’s the thing a husband should say all the time, right? I say it. And so I, you know, I thought about that a little bit longer and I was like, you know what that is, right?

Darty: [12:40] I mean, it is a lot of hope. I think there’s so much doom and gloom and especially when you get into facebook and you get on those facebook groups and there’s a lot of doom and gloom about the industry and people complaining that the business isn’t what it used to be on etc. Etc. And thEy know what you’re right. It’s not the plane and honest truth is that the industry is not what it used to be. It’s completely different. Um, I think that, um, I think it was last. YeAh. Last year, Jason Williams was speaking and he actually put that up on a screen. He said the industry is not dead, the industry is just different and it’s such a simple but kind of a profound statement because he’s right, you know, you’ve got to start thinking a little bit different. And what I am seeing, I mean, what bring me back to my thing that I’m fired up about is hope I’m, I’m seeing that especially in our community a little bit.

Darty: [13:31] I don’t. The cool thing, I don’t want it to be a sink, you know, advertisement because that’s definitely not what it is. But the cool thing about it is at stake, I feel like there’s not that doom and gloom. I feel like it’s an uplifting thing and I feel like that people do have hope. I mean even I was talking to david drum from h and h color lab and he was kinda saying the same thing a couple years ago. He was like, you know, one of the things I really enjoy about being here is that people, there’s not that doom and gloom. There is the people that are actually kind of uplifting each other and coming up with new ideas, you know? And that’s the thing too, you know, right now if you want to survive, and especially in the high school portrait industry, if you want to survive and the high school portrait in the industry, you’ve got to be a disruptive, right?

Darty: [14:14] Disruptive, right now you’ve got to do something different. You know, when I think about my own social media habits and I scroll down through instagram, you know, I like same picture, same picture, same picture, same picture. It’s like I just feel like it’s the same stuff over and over and every once in awhile you grabbed, you see something completely different and you stop and you take notice of that. And I think for me when I stop, it’s usually because it’s not the same girl laying in a fall leaves with natural light. It’s something, not that there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s different. You know what I’m saying is different. It’s because somebody has done something that I hadn’t seen. And that’s what makes me stop. And I...