Shownotes
In this Episode, Matt and Kia tell you a little about why they started the podcast and what to expect.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Intro: [00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia 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. Alright, welcome everybody to episode zero.
New Speaker: [00:16] This episode, me and Kia is going to be telling the story about where we come from and why we created this podcast. Kia, real quick, do you want to tell a quick story about where about your story and where you come from and stuff?
Kia: [00:27] Yes. I am super excited to do this. I have been a full time professional portrait photographer for over 20 years and I feel like the industry really needs people to inject hope into it and to give people ideas of how to make it a viable business.
Matt: [00:44] No, and I completely agree with that. I. That’s exactly why I’m doing this as well. So my wife Allison and I have owned a studio in Durango, Colorado for 10 years, I guess almost 11 years now and doing it full time as well. And I reached out to you about doing this podcast because I just thought, excuse me, I thought you were someone that you know, runs a studio full time that has been on the, you know, through the grind of running a business and could really help me, like you said, it bring hope to the industry as well. So yeah. Why, why me? Why should the audience be listening to us?
Kia: [01:16] Well, I think it’s interesting that you talked about why you reached out to me to do this and I would have to say I feel like we bring different things to the table whereas I have the experience and I’m the actual photographer in the business. I feel like you bring the ability to look at things from a technical aspect and figure out how to make it go more smoothly.
Matt: [01:39] Yeah. It wasn’t. Just to give a little bit of background on that, my wife Alison does all the shooting. I mean I, I go on a few weddings a year with her, but we’re mostly a senior portrait studio and she does all the shooting. So my job is to get the phone to ring and make sure that the calendar is booked. You’re right. Like while she’s out on a shoot, thinking about lighting and stuff like that, I’m more like figuring out systems to make us run more efficient so we have time off.
Kia: [02:01] Yeah. Yeah. And I have been. My roles in the business have definitely included the advertising and the marketing, but I definitely look at the photography business as a, as a whole more so. And I look at it definitely more visually that would, that’s the way that I think is more from a visual aspect. I’m excited because I feel like when you take both of our experience and you bring in the people that we’ve met throughout the years in the industry, I think we’ll be able to bring a lot of great, really practical steps that people can do to make their business better.
Matt: [02:35] Right. And that’s exactly what my goal too is like you and I have so many friends in the industry, we, we speak from the same stage very often, you know, like I’ll, I’ll fly into town into. You’ll be able to speak in the morning, I’ll be speaking the afternoon and stuff and we have so many friends that offer so many great things for businesses, but I don’t know if there’s. There’s really a great outlet right now to let people know like those, those little nuggets of what makes your business work right now. So kind of my goal was to bring one of our friends or somebody from the industry, maybe even somebody we don’t know we can reach out to and just say, Hey, can you come on, you know, for 30 minutes to an hour and teach photographers what’s working in your business now? You know, not the fluff, none of that stuff, but like what is actually making your business? What’s making the needle move forward in your business? What’s kind of my goal with this? For sure.
Kia: [03:20] Yeah, and when you describe that, it really makes me think of whenever I go to a photography convention or an event, my very favorite thing to do is to sit down with someone and a location that’s quiet enough that I can hear them and ask them specific questions. What is working for you, what are you doing, what is not working for you, what is changing for you? And when I think about, you know, what our plans for our podcast, that’s really what I am hoping that we’re going to be bringing out to people is they’re getting to be a part of that conversation and not necessarily having to leave their computers.
Matt: [03:53] Also allow us to like kind of drill these people a little bit in a positive way. But you know, when you go to these conferences and hear somebody speak from stage, they’re just following their powerpoint, but to be able to stop them and say, you know, dig a little deeper right there. Explain exactly what you mean there. I think it’s going to be super valuable for our audience
Kia: [04:10] for sure. Well, and you know, one other side of it too is that I feel like there are photographers that gain notoriety, uh, whether it’s, you know, off from the stage or online that are sharing things that don’t necessarily work. And I think because of our experience and what we’ve seen over the years, we can help people sift through what’s going to truly work in their business as well and highlight what’s going to work the best.
Matt: [04:37] No, I totally agree with that. Because like you, like you’ve said or implied this. I mean I went to so many conferences and those conferences were so good for us. They’re getting of our career, but there was a lot of things that you, when you finally got to know some of these speakers and you talked to them maybe what they were teaching they were using a couple of years before and it had changed or there, there was more to the story. And I think this podcast allows us to really ask those tough questions of people, you know, in our goal’s not to under any services, not to call out an any speakers or anything like that, but just get the real story so that people can take that, what’s working now nugget and apply it to their business that week. And you know, every week they’re just stepping forward like you and I have done for years and years. It’s just one step after another and just try to move the needle.
Kia: [05:17] Yeah. And I think, you know, as photographers, we definitely have a very social business where we’re working with people were photographing them, we’re interacting, but there’s another side of it where we’re alone sitting at the computer, coming up with advertising, retouching, working with files and I think sometimes we feel more alone than we even are because we don’t have that day to day interaction and rubbing against other people in the industry. And we may travel some of them times of the year to go to conferences or something like that. Or we may not. I feel like there are a lot of alone photographers that we can help make you not feel so alone by providing those conversations you wouldn’t normally get.
Matt: [05:58] No, and I agree. I mean, Alison and I worked together and you know, we have some staff and you have staff as well, but you still feel alone because you don’t really have somebody outside the business to bounce ideas off and then what makes maybe makes a lot of people feel even more lonely is that the people they would reach out to that. Is there a competition? A lot of times our competition isn’t super friendly. There isn’t like a local community of people to talk to. So that’s just it. It can be very, very lonely and
Kia: [06:23] yeah, and also I think when you first brought this up, you said you wanted to do this just as much for your own business as to help other people and I think that that’s a viable and a good selfish option. I feel the same way. I’m so excited because whenever I meet someone, whether they’re someone I haven’t ever talked to before or super old friend, I always have a list of questions in my head. I want to know this, I want to know this. I want to know this and so I’m so excited because I’m going to be able to ask those questions and find them out just for myself and see how they work and putting them into practice in my own business.
Matt: [06:56] Yeah. In one in one reason I asked you to co host this too is because you have a different circle of friends that I may have never talked to and I could have made a podcast and brought my. Your buddies. Yeah, my 52 friends online, you know, onto the podcast that I talked to on a regular basis, but I would just get the same story that I’ve already gotten. So I’m, I’m excited to work with you and some of your network just to get fresh ideas.
Kia: [07:18] Well, and once we start interacting with our listeners, I think I’m super excited to hear who people want to hear from as well because all of us have such a different circle. If you know, if I grabbed your phone and look through your instagram feed, it would look completely different than my instagram feed. Even though we’re both on instagram and our lives look like that too, so I’m excited to find out who other people want to hear from and learn from that as well.
Matt: [07:42] Yeah, I totally agree. Cool. All right, well let’s wrap this up real quick. So guys, here’s the plan. It’s going to be weekly schedule these out. We’ll probably do four interviews at a time, so some of them will be a couple of weeks old, but we’re not going to schedule a year in advance or anything like that, so you’ll hear it. The most recent current information that’s out there and then the plan is to schedule it to go out every Monday, super early so that whenever you wake up Monday morning or anytime during the week, whenever you have time, whether you’re retouching or whatever you’re doing, driving around in the car, that it’s going to be available for you that week to listen to us, interview somebody in the industry and find out exactly what’s working for them. Now,
Kia: [08:17] I’m so excited. Welcome to from nothing to profit with Matt Hoaglin and Kia Bonderant.
Outro: [08:23] Thank you for listening to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia. Be sure to subscribe for more business strategy and ideas to help you create a profitable and successful business you’ve always wanted. See you on the next episode of from nothing to profit.
