0:00:44 - Natalie Jennings

This is the Photo Business Help podcast, a resource for photographers of all levels, from brand new to burnt out, who believe that business growth starts with personal growth. I'm your host, natalie Jennings. I created Jennings Photo back in 2010 and have been happily full time since, but not without some mistakes along the way. Those lessons, plus what's really helped me thrive financially and personally, are what I want to share with you so you can grow with your photo business, too. You'll also hear stories from other photographers and industry folks, as well as my favorite ways to be more mindful and happier on this journey. I am so excited to share this episode with you.

This is such a comprehensive overview of how to grow a photo business. We're focusing on Liz as a Boudoir photographer who runs the Million Dollar Studio. She explains exactly how she breaks down how she got to a million dollars in revenue for her studio, and we talk about everything that you really need to know if you're thinking about getting started in this field, as well as if you're already shooting Boudoir and you're hitting a bottleneck or you're really wanting to grow things. She has some incredible information and ideas around how to do just that. She also has a free course which is linked in the show notes, which walks you through her top selling images and has videos of her shooting and producing all of that work. So it's really hands on tutorial stuff, and our conversation goes deep into how she built what she built. So please stay tuned for that.

After a couple of words from folks that support this show, thank you so much for being here, and I was just saying how much I love looking at your website. It's not only beautiful, but it makes me very excited to talk to you today about what you do and just hear more about all this. Did you recently redo your website?

0:02:52 - Liz Hansen

because it's lovely, oh, thanks so much and thanks so much for having me. It's just great to chat with you today.

0:02:57 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, of course, of course.

0:02:59 - Liz Hansen

I'm always trying to put new stuff on the website. I always try to keep things fresh, I love it.

0:03:05 - Natalie Jennings

So I mean we can just jump right in. But I would love to hear about this. I mean we're going to get to sort of what you do, but I'd love to hear about your million dollar studio thing that you have, because I'm sure there are folks out there that are Boudoir photographers or aspiring Boudoir photographers, that that I think you could really help. But maybe should we just dive in to that.

0:03:26 - Liz Hansen

Yeah. So I started a Boudoir studio in 2018 and I didn't really know what I was doing and I started from ground zero. I've now been running it for about six years. I photographed almost 2000 women in the Boudoir studio. I shoot Boudoir full time and I love it, and I put together a course called the million dollar studio, with everything in it that I wish I had had when I started my Boudoir photography business. So the reason why it's called million dollar studios because I run my studio at a million dollars per year, which is a little crazy, but I can break it down for you and the course just basically takes you through everything you need to know from shooting to lighting, to wardrobe, to privacy, to marketing automations everything that I use and do to run a successful Boudoir photography business.

0:04:14 - Natalie Jennings

That's awesome and I want to mention this a couple of times, but let's mention it now if people want to just jump on and look but you have a really awesome freebie. What's that all about?

0:04:21 - Liz Hansen

Yeah, so if you go to million dollar studio that's my coaching and education platform website and there is a free mini course in there you can go straight to it at million dollar studio slash mini course and what that is is it's my five top selling images and you can watch videos in there of me shooting real clients. How I exactly create those five top selling images.

0:04:45 - Natalie Jennings

That's such an awesome I was saying to you before I hit record and I wanted to make sure I got it recorded as well. It's a really awesome freebie, you know, really getting people like a sense of what your teaching style is and what they're going to learn from you. And I'm like I don't shoot Boudoir but I'm like I want to learn from you.

0:05:04 - Liz Hansen

And what I've learned is that most photographers were very visual people, right? That's why one of the reasons for photographers because we love beautiful things, we love looking at things and we learn visually. So I have found that for most photographers, watching a video of another photographer doing exactly what they do is the most helpful thing. Now I can look at a finished product all day. I can listen to you talk all day, but what I really need to see is you in action. So that's what I've done in this million dollar studio course.

There are recordings of me talking on the phone to clients. There are recordings of me getting a client ready for their photo shoot. There's recordings of the hair and makeup, the wardrobe console. The photo shoot, the image reveal me designing and editing albums. Editing images, designing albums Every piece of my business, what I've done, is recorded videos of me doing it, Because I think that's what photographers want to see. That's what they need to see. So the course the million dollar studio program if you enroll, you actually get to see 250 videos of just me doing my thing, showing you exactly how I run credit cards, exactly how I take orders, just my folder structure, just everything that I do is there's a video of it.

0:06:12 - Natalie Jennings

That's how people want to learn. I mean, that's how people learn. You're totally right about that. I mean, you're totally right about that. I really think that's we are visual people. That's so smart. That's such a great way to do it.

So, so, million Dollar Studio forward slash mini course Is that the URL, or did I just say that wrong? Yeah, exactly, it'll be linked in the show notes. But I just wanted to like sometimes people are just listening and they want to just plug it in right away, so awesome. Well, I don't know if, like, how deep you want to go into this, but I think it's pretty great that you're very transparent about your revenue and it's obviously called Million Dollar Studio, so that makes sense. But you said you were willing to break that down a little bit. I think people that are aspiring to grow their business they're certainly established photographers that listen to this podcast as well as beginners but when you're looking at growing, there's a you know they always say like new level, new problems, and I would love if, however comfortable you are, like how deep you want to go in this. But I'd love to hear about sort of like what that looks like when you're growing to that level and like some of the great things and maybe some of the challenges that you didn't foresee.

0:07:17 - Liz Hansen

Yeah, and I love these questions and I'm absolutely an open book, so I'm happy to share everything about it. So, just a high level. Let me show you something. So let's say we have 12 months in a year. Put it in a calculator you have 12 months in a year, right? I shoot on average 21 women per month, right? So 21 times 12, that brings us to about 250, 250 clients per year. I'm going to explain in a minute how I managed to shoot 21 clients per month without going crazy. Then I have each client is that comes to me. I'm running at about a $4,000 sales average. So if you multiply that times 4,000, that's how you get to a million. So basically, 12 months in a year, 21 clients per month, $4,000 sales average. That gives you a million dollar per year business. Now how do I do 21 clients per month and how do I do a $4,000 sales average? Obviously, there's a lot that goes into that, but I'm going to start by saying this the 21 clients per month.

I work on a same day sales schedule, so what that means is someone comes to my studio. From the time they walk in to the time they walk out, the door is three to four hours. New hair and makeup photo shoot reveal done. So I'm not having people come back. I'm not doing an online gallery where they pick their images and I'm following up with them. I'm not getting on Zoom with them later to design an album.

I do it right then and there, while they're at the studio. So you can imagine if you were only working from 10 to two every day, you could do that 20 times a month, right, because you're not spending your nights on Zoom following up with people not coming. And then the $4,000 sales average has to do with a price list that guides people towards that, images that people can't leave on the table and they want to buy, and a sales process that helps, that allows you to be the trusted guide to help clients to spend that kind of money. So I can talk about each of those aspects for an hour each, but that's an overview of how I run my business and how I get $2 million per year.

0:09:08 - Natalie Jennings

So helpful. Everyone loves this already. I love it and again, I'm not even doing what you do and I'm just like this is the best. I'm curious just on a logistic level because I shoot a lot of headshots just in general and I know that I don't have a studio space. But I've been asked this in my coaching and stuff how do you manage working with a stylist when you mentioned hair and makeup and stuff, do you? Because there is a little bit of a glitch there where, like, oh, you have a whole shoot planned and someone's not available and I've had a lot of conversations about this with different people and their troubleshooting of this. How do you sort of secure that? So it's part of the flow and you're not worried about it?

0:09:46 - Liz Hansen

That's a great question. So Boudoir is a little bit different than any other genre for a couple of reasons. Number one people are willing to shoot on a weekday. People take a day off work to do this. So I'm working typically Monday through Friday, 10 to two, right? So I'm never trying to book a hair and makeup artist on a Saturday morning when they're all at weddings. I'm never trying to book a hair and makeup artist on Friday night when they don't wanna work, right? So I do know that that's not always the case for weddings or headshots or other things when you can't work weekdays. But Boudoir like, if you wanna do a Boudoir photo shoot, you're willing to take some time off work to do it. Like it's just, it's a self care, self luxury kind of experience and it's you're already splurging on yourself. You're gonna take a day off work anyway.

The next thing I have a deck of hair and makeup artists that I work with. So when I say that, what I mean is I have 10 people that I can call, all of whom I have vetted, used, I have them contracted, I have W-9s for them. So when I book a photo shoot, it's not like oh my gosh, what are we gonna do about the stylist. It's like we know who we're gonna call, we know their schedules, we know what they can do and I include professional hair and makeup as part of the session fee with every single client who comes in my studio. So the hair and makeup is an essential part of this. Now, have I had an experience where a hair and makeup artist calls me the night before and says I have COVID. I can't come in these kinds of things occasionally, but because I have 10 artists that I work with on the regular, I call my next person. We're okay. Have I had the occasional, once per year emergency? Maybe, but typically these are makeup artists.

I pay them well. They love to come to my studio. They love to have work on a Tuesday at 10 am, because usually they're only booking weekends and weddings. They love to come to the studio. They know what I do. They know my process. It's simple for them. It's not some crazy wedding where they got nine bridesmaids and a mother of the bride. They know it's gonna be one client. They know what to expect. So these artists love working for me. I pay them more than this is one secret. I pay them a little bit more than market rate. So I know what the market rate is for hair and makeup. I pay just a little bit more so that when I call they always say yes to me.

0:11:57 - Natalie Jennings

That's a great thing that you added at the end there. That's one thing I've always done. When I had an associate team I paid very well for for mostly weddings. But I mean, when you can really beat that market average, you're already. People are already like wanting to show up for you, not just for the money but just because they feel valued and they are valued and you're showing them that they're valued.

0:12:21 - Liz Hansen

Exactly. Imagine you're a hair and makeup artist and one photographer calls and their headshot photographer and they book you a couple of times a year and they pay you marker eight. Or you're a boobar photographer and I'm booking you 10, 15 times a month and I pay you a little bit higher, like you're gonna prioritize my studio. So that's how I make it happen. I try really hard to be like the boss that I wanted. I wish I'd had, you know, because now I'm in charge, right Like I'm paying these people and I wanna be, I wanna empower other women the way I wish I had been empowered when I was the employee.

0:12:54 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, well, and since this is a business podcast, I figured we'd talk a little bit about growth. When you grow and you have grown quite quickly in the time that you've I mean relatively speaking you said 2018-ish, is that right? What sort of systems do you realize are an absolute must to have in place to prepare for growth? I think one of the things that happens with folks is that they want to grow, and then I used to do this example in my coaching where a group we'd be on like a group call and someone would say and the consensus would be like I just want more clients. Like everyone raise their hand. If they want more clients, okay, if I put you in front of a thousand people tomorrow, what would you do with them? And if a system isn't in place to collect their email or to nurture them in some way, you're gonna lose out on that. So, not necessarily just that email piece, but what sort of systems, as you've grown, are like absolutely necessary that you've learned to implement?

0:13:54 - Liz Hansen

Yeah, and this is such a great question because I think a lot of photographers, we are photographers and we love creating images and we love talking about lighting and posing and makeup and all these things, but what's really driving your business is actually the automations and system pieces, which, I've learned, a lot of photographers are sort of allergic to, right, so even talking about this gets some people uncomfortable, but this is really the engine of your business and what's gonna make it run. So, you're right, I did open my business in 2018 and the first 19 months that I ran my business, I was not able to pay myself even $1, right. So I woke up every day, worked full time, I was bringing in revenue some revenue but every dollar I brought in I was using to keep the business going. So I was not able to cut myself a paycheck for the first 19 months and, like you said, I didn't have systems and automations in place that allowed me to grow. Once I put those in place, then, like you said, you get in front of a thousand people. You can actually do something with that information.

So I use a texting and email CRM which allows me to send out automated emails and texts every single time a lead comes in. There are studies on the internet that show that there's some. You know I'm not gonna get this exactly right, but something like 30 to 40% of your leads will book the photographer who gets back to them first, right? Not the best photographer, not the photographer with the best lighting, not the photographer with the fancy gels. They are gonna book the photographer who gets back to them first. But of course, you can't be glued to your email and your phone 24 seven, just getting back to people and being the first one back. So what I have in place are automations. Someone gets back. Someone emails me or texts me in the middle of the night. They will still get information back from me, from my robot automation system, right. So texts and emails and, of course, texting, I think is so crucial.

A lot of photographers say, well, I'm sending out nurture emails. Well, great, I'm so glad you are. But guess what? A lot of people, especially younger, set. I put myself. I'm a little bit older, I was born before the internet was invented right, but they don't check email, right, they are on their phones and you are way more likely to interact with them via text, right. So automated texts and emails, contracts.

No one can come in and shoot a Boudoir session with me if they have not signed a contract. Right? This is way too intimate of an experience to just go on a handshake. Right, I need to have a contract and then I have a system in place for the day of shoot, right? When someone comes in, it's not just like oh, what are we gonna do today? I don't know. Let's figure this out Like before the client comes into my studio, I know exactly how this is gonna go. I have the hair and makeup, I know the wardrobe, I know the shoot, the lights are in place, and then I know how I'm gonna sell to them, right? So all of those pieces together are absolutely crucial to making the business work. If the building of those systems and processes is what allowed me to create a profitable business, not more beautiful images I mean beautiful images are a part. They're like 5% of the equation. The other 95 is the business piece.

0:16:59 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, well, and that's why this podcast exists Exactly.

0:17:04 - Liz Hansen

And it's something that's hard for a lot of photographers because that's not why they got into photography. You didn't get into photography because you love CRMs and automated emails. You didn't get into photography because you love having, like this, automated system that helps you, and I get that. But if you're wanting to take your business from hobby to profitable business, this is just a piece you cannot ignore.

0:17:27 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, I totally agree with that, and especially if you're someone that leans disorganized Like. I'm a pretty organized person so in the beginning I was fortunate in that I was always just responding and just kind of on top of things. That's just sort of my nature. But even so, automations are useful. So if you lean disorganized like, this is a real big thing. That isn't that hard to tackle. I mean, I use Honey Book and like I've been using it for years and it's just they make it very easy. 17 hats makes stuff very easy. Like there's a lot of options out there to just put in the time, watch the videos, set it up and you're gonna be on your way. You're gonna be glad you did.

0:18:11 - Liz Hansen

So at one point early on in my business some water came in through the back alley door of my studio and it flooded the studio and it ruined the floors of my studio and it took the landlord like weeks and weeks and weeks to get that cleaned out and finished and I couldn't shoot during that time and it was a real bummer. But looking back, I took that time so I was out. I couldn't shoot because I shoot in a commercial studio that I ran. I don't shoot Boudoir out of my home or anything. I don't have a house that could accommodate that. So during that time I came home.

First I cried and then I literally like strapped myself to a computer and I was like I'm gonna figure out the auto emails, text contracts system and I just spent those couple of weeks figuring it out and once I did, then you don't have to mess with it as much going forward, right, but that flood was actually a gift because it gave me the time and the space to sit down and put some business processes in place that have benefited me for years to come. So if you end up with an unexpected slow period in your business, if maybe you know you don't shoot weddings in January, or maybe you just don't have any bookings for the next couple of weeks. Take that time as a real, like a gift. I want you to think of it as a gift, if you can, to get your business in order so that for years to come it will pay dividends for you.

0:19:29 - Natalie Jennings

Yes, that's all I can say to that. It's like I completely agree. It's such a smart thing to do and to look at I love your language there to just look at setbacks or slow period as a gift is I mean really in life, right? I mean not just for business, but what can you do with that time? How can you come out of it? Covid was sort of a giant example of this. But like, how can you come out of this experience with something, rather than having something just have been done to you and it just sucks? And I think that's a really excellent mindset to have and I'm a huge fan of mindset stuff. I'd love to speak I feel all the voices in my head of all of the Boudoir photographers that wanna ask a Boudoir question. So I'd love to just shift it a little from business just to the photography itself and just I guess it's still a business question. But like, what do you recommend for somebody that really wants to shoot Boudoir but just has no idea where to start?

0:20:27 - Liz Hansen

Okay, I love this question and I'm like super passionate about this. Boudoir is super hot right now. If you even have an inch of interest into Boudoir, I recommend dipping your toes in. And here's why. First off, boudoir is super fun, like listen when kids and families come in to take their photos, like everyone's mad. Kids are mad. Mom's a little bit mad, dad's mad, everyone's a little bit mad, right. Headshots everyone's like a little bit mad. Like, maybe they don't want to take new headshots, maybe they don't wanna get a new job, maybe corporate's telling them they have to get new headshots and they don't want to right, everyone's a little mad. Weddings everyone's a little mad, right, little stressed, something's gone wrong. Everyone's a little stressed.

0:21:06 - Natalie Jennings

They're stressed. But even if not anger, they're stressed for sure.

0:21:09 - Liz Hansen

Exactly Boudoir. Guess what? No one's mad. People only come to do Boudoir because they want to. They are signing up for this to feel great about themselves, and so the client photographer experience with Boudoir is just, it's the best of any genre I've ever shot. And listen, I've done bar mitzvahs, I've done weddings, I've done headshots, I've done families, I've done all the things. Boudoir's the most fun. Number two get your weekends back, right. You don't have. I never shoot weekends. I'd say the studio's closed on weekends, right so? And evenings, I don't shoot evenings, right so you can really name your own schedule.

Number three you can charge luxury prices. You say to people listen, you want me to take pictures of your underwear, yeah, it's not gonna be cheap. And they're like yeah, you're right, it's probably not gonna be cheap, you don't have to fuss as much. I mean, sure, of course do. I have penny-pictures people who don't book as a price, of course. But the ability to say this is a luxury experience, I'm gonna treat you fabulous, of course it comes with a luxury price tag is an easier sell with Boudoir than, in my opinion, on any other genre. Selling the album is easy, right? Someone comes in for a Boudoir photo shoot and I say you know, most people get an album. They're like, yeah, most people probably do, that's what I wanna get too. It's not quite such an uphill climb with like families or other genres, to sell prints and albums because it's just so natural to print a Boudoir album, right, so the print sale is really easy. So there's just so many reasons that if you are at all interested in Boudoir that I recommend giving it a try.

In my area I've done some kind of general looking around In my. From what I can tell on the internet, there are about 200 photographers shooting weddings and families for every one Boudoir photographer. But your competition is so much lower. Are there other Boudoir photographers in my area? Of course I'm in Chicago. There's 10 million people here. Are there other Boudoir photographers? Of course, but in terms of your competition versus family and wedding photographers it is dramatically lower. So it's so much easier to stand out and be. If they know my name, they associate me with Boudoir immediately because it's like you remember that, like, oh, she's the girl that does Boudoir like that and those nice photos, right? If you're interested, let me encourage you to give it a try.

The second part of your question was like what should you know before you get started? Number one Boudoir is an intimate experience and you need to have your ducks in a row in terms of privacy, legality and business, like everything in a row, right? You don't wanna just like one day decide that you're shooting Boudoir out of your basement, get some pictures leaked on the internet, get sued and your life is over, right. Like you gotta be careful. So you need to have a lawyer drafted contract, you need to know how to password protect images, you need to know what you can and can't shoot and post and all those kinds of things.

Listen, there are actual laws in this country about pornography and you need to be aware. You don't wanna put yourself in big trouble. So get yourself educated on these things and figured out before you start shooting. Is that something I go over in my program? Absolutely, yes, absolutely, and you know there are a lot of free resources on the internet too. I'm not saying that I'm the only person who knows how to shoot Boudoir, but just be aware this is different than a headshot. This is different than taking a picture of someone's dog or horse. Like, there are actual legalities and laws surrounding nudity and in terms of what you can post on Instagram, on Facebook and on all those things. So just start being aware that Boudoir is going to be different than any other genre, right yeah?

0:24:41 - Natalie Jennings

That's very helpful.

0:24:43 - Liz Hansen

Yeah, and then next, I recommend doing free shoots. So if you have never shot Boudoir before, you're going to want to build your portfolio. So in order to advertise your Boudoir services, you're going to need some images. In order to get the images, you're going to need to do some portfolio building shoots. In my opinion, do not shy away from doing a few free shoots. There's some people out there that say you should never shoot anything for free. My opinion on that is if you have never shot Boudoir before, get your feet wet by shooting some free things. You can always offer paid images or albums on the other end, but have people come in for free, ask for honest feedback about how they felt and how you can improve, work on your lighting and your sets. Get started with some free portfolio building photo shoots.

0:25:24 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, I'm in the same boat with you on that. I may have changed my mind on this over the years I actually don't remember but I feel like for the longest time I've agreed with that perspective that I think if you are brand new to something like shadow, shoot for free, ask your neighbors if you can take pictures of their kids or whatever you're trying to get into because you're trying to build portfolio. And I think if you're trying to build portfolio and charge for it at the same time, you're going to really hit kind of a bottleneck there because people aren't. You're not going to have that no like and trust factor and people aren't. They don't have anything to see. You don't have the portfolio yet. So I don't.

I think it's sort of the cost of starting a business. It's actually quite a fun one. Like I don't. I think as photographers, I mean if you like what you're doing and you're not doing a free shoot, that's hours and hours and hours long, like maybe you're just doing a short little mini here and there, or just like, like I said, if you're doing families, like snapping a few pictures at the barbecue and asking if it's okay to use them on your site or whatever, if you have really cute pictures that you got, like whatever you're doing doesn't have to be this crazy thing, but it's certainly.

0:26:34 - Liz Hansen

I think that's great advice Now listen, I don't suggest shooting for free for three years, right? Like that's not what I'm exactly what I'm saying. You have zero Boudoir photos to show anyone. Do a few like three to five free shoots I'm not saying do 400 free shoots and you will start learning some of the things that are you're going to encounter over and over and over again.

So, for example, you may not realize how nervous people are to do this and what you need to do personally as a photographer to manage other people's nerves.

It's a people thing, not a photography thing, right?

So you may have the lighting down and your backdrops around and everything, but not realize some of the people skills that you need to work on in order to shoot Boudoir, right?

You're going to hear women say things like I'm too big to do Boudoir, I'm too old to do Boudoir, I'm too this to do Boudoir whatever, and you're going to learn how you're going to respond to that and how you're going to tell people about your mission to help women feel beautiful in their skin, just as they are, and you're going to create words and phrases. You're going to do your own Boudoir photo shoot yourself so that you know how it feels to be in your client shoots, no matter where you are on your self love and self body love journey. You're going to do your own new Boudoir photo shoot so that you can come back and say listen, I did this myself, I was nervous, this is how it felt, this is how it turned out, and now I want to offer the same experience back to you, right? So, like there's a lot of things you're going to learn just along the way that aren't even photography skills, that you need to know before you put out full priced, full service Boudoir packages.

0:28:14 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, that's really. I think it's also incredibly helpful that you brought up the fact that you should go through the process yourself. If you're listening to this and you're a family photographer and maybe you don't have a family and kids but, like, you've never had a shoot, you've never had someone come to your house and do a photo shoot for you or you're doing Boudoir and you've never had the shoot and whatever it is. And I found for myself, you know, when I've had colleagues do headshot sessions for me or I did a couple of family sessions with my little dog and it was like, oh, this is nice to know what this feels like. And it really informed my own approach in a couple of instances where I was like, okay, so that's what's going on when they do X, y and Z, and I think you nailed it. I mean that should be, especially with Boudoir. That should be sort of like here's the first thing you do go get a Boudoir session.

0:29:06 - Liz Hansen

Absolutely, and you know on the business end to find another email address that you have that and enter yourself in as a lead and see what your emails and texts look like. How fast does it take for them to come? What's cleared your links work Like. I always recommend being a client on your end, to pretending to be a client and make sure that you're. You know how stuff rendering on mobile, look it up on your phone. Are they getting reminders before their photo shoot? Are they getting the information, the address to come? You know all these things, so make sure that you know what it's like to be your client on all fronts. This is gonna be key to so people know like and trust you to book. But then how is the experience when they come to you and afterwards to get those reviews and referrals? It's two different pieces. They know like and trust you enough to book you, but they won't write good reviews and refer you unless the experience all throughout booking and gallery and now delivery is really good, seamless, easy all the way through.

0:30:06 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, that's really smart to remind people of and, I think, just in general, reminding folks that, yes, we're in it for the art and the love of creating a beautiful image, but there are a bajillion other things, particularly if you want two big ones to focus on, it's your people skills and your business skills Like those, oh my gosh. Okay, so I'm just gonna pause here because you guys listening can't see this, but I have the new Mac book, I don't know whatever. So there's like this camera. I've probably talked about this in the podcast before, but there's this, the feature where, if you do something weird with your hands, like there's like just now, I did something with my hands and a bunch of balloons flew up out of the screen and I just- it was so hard to be talking about business and all of a sudden it was like happy birthday.

I know I wish we were recording the video because, anyway, if any of you have had that happen on a Zoom call, you're not alone, happens to me all the time.

But it is a Mac thing, it's not like a we're on squadcast right now, not Zoom, so it's. I don't know where that comes from, but I just I can't not pause when that happens because it's a little too weird. Back to what I was saying if there's like two things to focus on people skills, business skills and, of course, your photography skills but like those things, they have to be a priority and I would say, in the 10 years that I've been mentoring, coaching and doing what I've been doing, like that's one of the big issues that I see is just probably more than anything, honestly like the people skills, like really just making sure that like there's a friendly interaction and a timely interaction on email and then like a friendly interaction on a phone call, and then you know just these little things that people are going to. Even if they love your photos, they're gonna make a decision based on how they feel around you.

0:31:55 - Liz Hansen

Yeah, listen, every single client when they are sitting in the hair and makeup chair at my Boudoir studio. I ask them. I say where'd you find my studio? And like, what made you book? You know, just real friendly. I ask and I keep data on this because I like to know where people come in from and why they're booking me. Right, and you would be surprised. Well, maybe you wouldn't be surprised, but almost very often people don't say I booked you because I loved your photos. I do they don't necessarily some people do, but a lot of people say I filled out a form and you got back to me. I liked, when we talked on the phone, how it sounded like this was gonna be easy and you would have this all set up for me. I liked how, when I sent you an email back, you asked me some personal questions about why I was booking Boudoir photo shoot and some of the other photographers just sent me back a form and that's why I went with you. I mean things like that that are not photography related. Yeah, so I booked with you because I saw how you went live in your Facebook group and you talked to me about how a six year old woman had come into your studio and you had such a great time and I'm 59 and that helps me think that maybe I could do it too. So things like that, the connection, the process is bringing people.

I mean, of course you need to have beautiful images, okay, but let me tell you something. I shoot out of a small studio. I'm in Chicago. Real estate is expensive. My studio is 412 square feet, including the bathroom. It's small. I see some photographer Boudoir photographers around me. You know they're shooting in castles and you know, with the staircases and chandeliers and bathtubs and like I don't have that. I shoot a more simplistic style, but I know that some people are coming to me because they can trust that the experience will go well. I present a professional. You know like they're not gonna end up in some dude's basement where it's gonna be weird. So like what is getting them to book is my professionalism, my process, and then we'll create beautiful images while we're there. But you don't have to take your Boudoir clients to Hawaii and shoot them in a waterfall to help them feel confident and empowered in front of your lens.

0:34:00 - Natalie Jennings

I'm glad that you said that because I think for this audience particularly like you just made this so much more accessible for people, just in saying that it doesn't have to be a massive production at all, and it doesn't even just apply to Boudoir. It does not have to be a massive production, whatever it is you're doing.

0:34:17 - Liz Hansen

No, I mean, and especially with Boudoir think about what you could do with an inflatable mattress, some white sheets and a white pillow, like Taylor Swift just at the Grammys announced her new album and her the cover of her album is literally her lying in like a black. It's not even lingerie, it's kind of like a bathing suit. Look on a white bed with white sheets and I'm like that is exactly the Boudoir look you can achieve for people. I do this with one light in a small room with some basic setups. Boudoir, in my opinion, is more about how the woman feels, how she views herself, than all of the extra candles and neon lights and stuff that you might put around her.

0:34:56 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, that's awesome. I think that perspective is really great and hopefully inspires some people to do this. I think because we were talking about timeliness with getting back to people as well as how you sound personally on a phone call. I have one more sort of logistical business question before we kind of wrap up here and I hopefully it'll help some folks that are just trying to figure out how all this fits together. But also sign up for the course, because I'm sure that'll be helpful. But when you say sort of you're in the studio, tend to to what part of your business is dedicated to fielding all the other admin stuff. So setting up phone calls with clients, is that a? Does every client get on a call or just auto stuff with emails, versus stuff that you feel like you need to jump in and check Like what? Where do you make time for that in your 21 clients a month schedule?

0:35:46 - Liz Hansen

Yeah. So when I first started, I was doing everything myself, right, I was taking the phone calls, I was shooting the pictures, I was retouching the pictures, I was doing the album design, I was ordering the pictures, all of those things right. I was a one woman show for a long time. As I decided I wanted to grow, I did. I have hired people, right. So outsourcing a lot of things has really helped me to grow. The very first thing that I outsourced actually was album design, because I had a friend and I was talking to her and I was like I'm so busy and she's like, well, is there like one piece of your business I could do? And I was like trying to think I'm like you can't really do this or that and she doesn't. But I was like I bet I could teach you album design because I use, you know, an album stop software. My album designs are simple. And I literally taught her how to do it in like 20 minutes Outsource that. Once I had outsourced that first thing, I was like, hmm, what else did I hire someone else to do here? Right? So since then I now have folks, like I said, like a fairly large organization now, in the sense that while I still do all the photographing I do, I take all the pictures. I've got my hair and makeup artists, I've got someone doing the album design and ordering, I have a retoucher, I have a gal who answers the phone and I have somebody does my social media, which frees me up now, obviously, I'm people, so it's costing me my. It frees up my time, so I can spend time doing what I want to do, which is taking pictures, and which I'm the stuff that makes money, which is taking the pictures right. So when I was small, I was doing all this myself and I'm glad that I did so, that I knew what it was like and I knew how to do every piece of it. But gradually I have outsourced every part of my business that I can and, yes, every single picture, every single person who comes in to take pictures with me. I have a phone call with them first.

Here's why boudoir I want to really make sure we're on the same page. I am a fairly tame boudoir photographer and if they want something really explicit, I I want to hear about that and I want to refer them out. I want to hear about their timeline and, most importantly, I want to hear their reason for booking a photo shoot, because I need to know what we're creating. What are we doing here? Are we creating a bridal boudoir photo shoot? Are we creating a gift for your partner? Is this just for you? Did you lose some weight? Are you celebrating a divorce? Did you guess just? Do you get um diagnosed with breast cancer? Are you having a baby like? Why are we doing this photo shoot? Once I know that, then I can curate the experience for you and I don't want you to just fill that out on a form. I want to have a little bit of a human connection with every person who comes in. Boudoir is just too intimate to not have that human connection before they come in.

0:38:21 - Natalie Jennings

Do you keep on running? Do you keep?

0:38:23 - Liz Hansen

I won't take pictures with you when you're on to work, like that's my.

0:38:27 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, totally that makes sense. Do Take notes on your calls Then and just keep them somewhere. How does your note taking process work if you're on the phone with somebody?

0:38:37 - Liz Hansen

Yes, absolutely. So. I do have a gal who answers the phone for me and she takes extensive notes, so before the client comes in, I can read that. The great thing is, though, also, I rely on that hour, that 60 minutes that they're in hair and makeup, to Connect again with the client. So maybe three weeks ago, and they but what? Why are you here today? What brings you in today? How are you today? What are we creating today? And I use that whole time. So I hire hair and makeup artists. I have a beauty team.

I don't do the hair make-up myself, so while the hair and makeup artist is busy doing their hair makeup, I'm spending 60 minutes connecting with the client, finding out what we're going to create, what we're going to do. So by the time we get into the studio, we're ready to go, I know what we're going to do and I can create exactly. I can, I can customize exactly what I want to for that client right then in there. So, yes, the phone call, yes, the notes, but looking that person in the eye and finding out exactly what they want, I found even sometimes on the phone, they won't reveal some of their real reasons till they're sitting there In the makeup chair talking, you know, on the phone. I told you I was doing this for my husband and it's true, his 50th birthday is coming up and I do want to create an album for him. But let me tell you this is kind of for me, and here's why. Okay, I will get more real answers out of someone when I am face-to-face than I will on the phone even.

0:39:56 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, that's great. It's so cool that you have that built-in time and I think if you don't have that in your business, for me personally, I love to get on a call, particularly before Dating profile session or a headshot session. I mean that's essential because you really just want to get a sense of each other. But that's great. I think that's a really cool thing that you've built in there, and I think that that's really important. I could talk forever about this, and I sense that you can too, but I think we need to wrap up here we're. It's already been like 40 minutes. This is great. I'd love to ask you well, before we dive into that one more time, I want to just hear sort of a little bit more about your program and what people can learn. Just maybe one more refresh in case folks tuned in late or just forgot.

0:40:42 - Liz Hansen

Absolutely so. I have a lot of free resources first of all. So I run a free facebook group called million dollar studio with liz Hansen. You can come and ask me questions and I go live every week and answer questions and things like that. So please join the facebook group and we can leave the link. On the facebook group you can find links to my free mini course and other free resources If you decide, you love what you see and you want to work with me.

There's two ways. So number one I have a course called break into boudoir and this is for people who want to get into the boudoir genre, who are already photographers but have never shot boudoir. It's 199 dollars right now and that is going to be videos of me shooting, selling A lot of things to help get you going. If you want to break into the boudoir niche If you are already is if you're through that course or you're already shooting boudoir and you want to build your business from Wherever you are up to the million dollar level, then I have what's called the million dollar studio program and that is my full program where I'm going to teach you everything that I've done to build the business from ground zero to a million dollars a year. So I've got everything from free to 199 to the full coaching program, which is a couple thousand dollars, and that includes live coaching with me. You can talk to me on zoom, get all your questions answered, things like that.

0:41:55 - Natalie Jennings

Beautiful and, again, all those links are in the bio. But I mean, if you're thinking about doing this or you're struggling getting this going for yourself, this is the resource for you, absolutely. I'd like to ask this question and feel free to take your time thinking about it. We can add it out the space, but I want to leave people with any advice, like sort of parting advice. It can be like a quote, it can be just a something that's helped you Through, something that you sort of think of when you're having a hard time. Anything that you want to sort of leave people with before we sign off.

0:42:27 - Liz Hansen

So I found myself a unique position where I've been a stay-at-home mom for seven years and then I had a part-time job working at a photo studio and then that's, I was answering the phones and things. That studio, the owner, relocated to Florida and I was left at a crossroads of Do I go get a job, do I become a stay-at-home mom again, or do I open up my own photo business? Those were kind of like the three things I was kind of like weighing In my life and I knew in my heart that I wanted to open a photo business, but it felt too hard and too scary. I was just like I don't know how to open a business, I don't know how to do this. Like what if I have this problem or that problem? And my husband said to me Do you want to be 80 years old? And think I never tried. I never tried to follow my dreams because it sounded too hard. Like is that what you want to do? Like because if you're going to do this, you need to do it now and you're going, someday You're going to be 80 years old. And I was like you're right, you're right, like I don't want to be 80 years old and say I never tried to run a business because it sounded hard and so I went for, and it hasn't been hard.

Yes, have I had a lot of hard things happen? Yes, have I had a competitor ask all 20,000 of her followers to write bad reviews on my site for no reason one day? Yes, has the studio flooded? Yes, did a Piper studio during a Chicago winter and did I lose everything in the studio Electronics, furniture, everything? Yes, have I had some sleepless nights? Yes, but am I so glad I did it? Yes, have I had women put their arms around me with tears and say I didn't know how this beautiful until now? Yes, have I had women tell me that this was a life-changing experience for them? Have I made friends, lifelong friends? Have I felt the satisfaction of running something that I created that's my own? Have I been invited to speak on the TED stage TED talk stage about Boudoir, because I am so passionate about what I do?

Yes, I heard your talk is lovely, but yeah, I guess I would just say they're going to be hard times, but they're going to be some really beautiful, powerful times too. And if you are feeling the call to open a photo studio business, to grow your business or to get into Boudoir, answer that call and I don't think you will regret it.

0:44:36 - Natalie Jennings

Great advice. I feel like that's a perfect parting words for people. Thank you so much for being here and please check out All of the million dollar studio stuff. The links are in the bio and we'll have to do this again sometime. Thank you so much, Liz. Oh, it's fabulous.

0:44:48 - Liz Hansen

Thank you so much for having me and everything that you do for the industry.

0:44:53 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, thanks, Liz.