If you want to get paid to travel to your sessions, there are so many logistics to consider. While Kellie Llewellyn was coordinating her sessions to fit her own travel schedule when she started, she eventually shifted to where she is now traveling specifically for sessions. Listen in as Kellie shares her experience in coordinating and photographing travel senior sessions!
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Guest Bio:
Kellie is a Williston, ND-based photographer who lives for capturing the moments you didn’t even realize were magical until you saw them frozen in time. With seven years of experience and a borderline obsession with creating unforgettable client experiences, she’s your go-to for senior, family, and travel photography. Juggling seven kids and a business, she’s mastered the art of controlled chaos and somehow makes it all look good (with Diet Coke, probably too much Diet Coke). When she’s not shooting or chasing kids, you can find her exploring new destinations and proving that work-life balance is a myth—but passion makes it worth it.
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Find it Quickly:
00:25 – Meet Kellie Llewellyn: Senior Photographer
00:50 – The Unscripted Conversation Approach
1:42 -Kellie’s Unique Travel Photography Offer
3:35 – Kellie’s First Travel Session Experience
7:01 – Traveling to Glacier National Park
8:00 – Planning and Logistics of Travel Sessions
11:09 – Handling Travel Fees and Client Coordination
18:41 – Contingency Plans for Travel Sessions
19:41 – Lessons Learned from Early Travel Sessions
22:02 – Promoting Travel Sessions on Social Media
22:55 – Managing Travel Session Inquiries and Bookings
30:37 – Collaborating with Clients on Locations
33:47 – Final Tips and Encouragement for Travel Sessions
Connect with Kellie
Website: kellierochelle.com
Instagram: @kellierochellephotography
Kellie’s Travel Freebie: kellierochelle.com/scout
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hello. Hello. And welcome back to another episode of the business first creatives podcast today. I am chatting with my friend and client Kellie Llewellyn, and she is a phenomenal senior photographer out of North Dakota, which means she is colder than me. Can you guys imagine that Kellie? Welcome to the podcast.
Kellie: Thank you. I’m happy to be on here. I’m excited to talk to you.
Colie: Yeah, guys, I’m just gonna out her. So she sent me a text message because again, we’re friends. She has my actual phone number. She sent me a text message yesterday for questions and I was like, yeah, I don’t do that. So just to reiterate to what, you know, the listening audience probably knows, I don’t ever send people questions anymore.
This conversation is just as real as you get. I ask the questions that pop up in my mind. And that’s it.
Kellie: I actually love that.
Colie: I mean, I just I always feel like when people send me questions, I’m like, Ooh, I should prepare an answer. And then if they don’t ask the question, I’m just like, Okay, I thought of that big old answer for nothing. Plus, I feel like if I send someone questions, it forces me to try to ask them, even if they’re not a natural flow of the conversation.
And I just rather that these be like conversations with friends who happen to own businesses.
Kellie: Yeah, I love that. I love that. Yeah, that’s
Colie: So we are going to hop into what Kellie is going to be chatting with us about today. She is a senior photographer, as I’ve already mentioned, but she has a pretty unique offer that she has in her, you know, offer suite, which is going to be the subject of what we’re going to talk about today. So Kellie, before we get into that, why don’t you tell me how long you’ve been in business?
Like what’s your origin story of being a photographer? Because I feel like you have lived way more lives than I’ve lived.
Kellie: Okay. I, well, as you know, I have seven kids, so that plays a big part into how I became a photographer, but I was a hospital pharmacist for 10 years. And when I was pregnant with Max, who’s number six, we decided that I couldn’t be working and be on call and my husband be on call. And so I decided I would stay home air quotes there.
And, but I just dove right into photography because I was already doing pictures of the kids, kind of the classic mom story, and it just kept evolving and evolving until I. Brought in the travel portion of it, and I made it into a business that worked with what my goals were, basically.
Colie: Yeah, I mean, and guys, in case you didn’t get it, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. So not only does Kellie offer local sessions, which are like, you know, family photography, senior photography, the things that we talk about on a regular basis, but she has this whole travel portion of her offer, which I honestly think is one of the most fascinating things that I’ve heard in a while.
So, Some of you listening may know I would do travel for my day in the life sessions and for kind of like half day sessions. And that’s because I have people like across the United States, usually photographers who love my documentary style. No one near them offers it. So they hire me to fly to them to do the session, but that is not what Kellie does.
So Kellie, tell me a little bit about your travel offers first. Tell me, tell me how you got started with your first one. Who was your first travel client and where did you go?
Kellie: Okay, so my first travel client was actually Isabel, my oldest daughter, my oldest child. And what I did was I reached out to like two of her close friends who had moms that I knew like to travel. And I was like, here, I have this great idea. Let’s fly to San Diego and go to Joshua tree. We’ll, we’ll drive to Joshua tree and we’ll drive to the Glamis sand dunes.
Then we’ll go back to San Diego and we’ll hit all these spots and do a bunch of pictures and the girls can hang out and we’ll make it like a girl’s trip. And I’m not kidding you. Like, I thought they’d have to like ponder it and it’d be like a thing. No, within an hour, they’re both like, yep, we’re in. And I was like, okay.
And so that’s how it started. And that was a really like grueling one, because like. We went in June. So June in North Dakota is not like June in San Diego. Right. And Joshua tree. It’s the desert there. And so people were like, actually had a friend from Phoenix that was going to come and bring some girls and do it with me.
And her people were like, Oh no, that is not even new. We would never go there in June. Like
Colie: I would never go there in June.
Kellie: And, and we were like, we could do it. So we just did like sunrise sessions. Girls got up at three in the morning, did their hair and makeup, and we would go do a session and. We even ended up doing a sunset session because it’s a dry heat.
So it’s not as hot as you think it would be. And it was like shooting every day, usually twice a day. I think we did like eight sessions and those like four days that we were there. And so their galleries were huge. And like the variety of clothes, like I picked the girls that I knew would have like the outfits and the hair and the makeup and they would be all about it.
And I was like a perfect pick because those pictures are still some of the favorite that I’ve ever taken. And I think that just kind of sparked people like, okay, wait, what does she do? You know?
Colie: I mean, so we can take this in a million directions, but I am going to say, I do know that those are your favorite images, because when you said that, I was like, Oh yeah, those are the ones that are all over your proposals that I created for you. So yes, they are in there. Okay. So. You chose to do it with your daughter, and she brought along her two friends, but then what I’m seeing in my mind is, okay, were these just group photos?
Like, how did you still make it a senior photo experience when she was, you know, when it was your daughter and her two besties?
Kellie: You know, I should have, when we were talking about the beginning story. So my mom shoots with me all the time. I think you know that, Koli. Just for fun. She just really enjoys it. She doesn’t edit the pictures. I do all the editing and all the, the back end work. She came with me and we kind of turned it into like a mini session.
So I’d be shooting a girl for like 10 or 15 minutes while she was shooting another girl. And that third girl would be changing into her next outfit. And so there was just never like a real lull. And we had, we had it down to a science. It’s like. And they had to have at least two outfits each location and we would do some group ones, but you know, they mostly, it was just each girl on their own and that worked out really well.
We just figured out like, you know, like a flow of it and we work really quickly. And I mean, it was great. It was, it was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun work.
Colie: Yeah. Okay, so the first one you kind of got away with one of the models. One of the clients, if you will, was your own daughter. What about your second trip? So first of all, what did you learn from the first trip that helped you book your second trip? And then tell me where you went and like who the client was and that kind of stuff.
Kellie: I believe our second trip was to Glacier National Park. We do a trip there every year as a family. And, and it was another friend of mine, her son was a senior with Isabel and she was like, Hey, we love going there too. Her aunt has like a Bible camp on Flathead Lake. I don’t know if you’ve heard of that.
That’s like the big lake out there. She was like, we would love to do it in Glacier. And I’m like, I’m going to be there. And so that’s how that one started. Um, and it was really cool cause it was a boy, right? So that’s a whole different story when you, you know, boys and different boy outfits are not the same as girl and girl outfits. He was a swimmer. And I don’t know if you’ve seen that picture of Coley where he’s in the Lake McDonald and he’s swimming in the mountain ranges behind him. And it’s just a really like one, another favorite picture, right? It just really stands out. And, his was a really cool session too. He was a fun boy and he was game for whatever we wanted to do.
And his mom was like one of the. Most fun people you would ever meet and I did her daughter’s senior travel session this last year in Oregon.
Colie: Ah, and I know about that trip. So let’s get to some logistics because I feel like now people are kind of getting a feeling for, okay. Okay. You’re traveling to places in some cases where you’re already going to be, which makes it nice. And I know for a fact that you also came to Colorado recently with a family that was already going to be here.
So a lot of the time you’re traveling for convenience, but let’s say that it isn’t a trip, that you have already have something planned. So if someone contacts you to book a travel session for their senior, What is the process like in terms of laying out location options, timeframes, like, do you take all of your direction from the person who’s inquiring or are you coming to them with ideas?
And it’s kind of like, well, these are the things that I have in my mind. Pick one. Yeah. Yeah.
Kellie: And she’s like this place means a lot to us and we want to go there But a lot of times they’ll come to me and they’ll be like where would you suggest like tell me places you’ve been to?
Tell me what the photos would look like and we kind of pick based on that the Oregon coast, I did two last summer there. I’d never been there. None of us had been there. You know, and so I relied on my apps a lot and asking people that had been there, like, where do I go?
What do I do? Do you have any tips for me? And that worked really well. And also I feel like it’s kind of like a wedding because you kind of have the one shot, right? It’s a little bit better because you usually have a couple days, but at the same time, you’re not going to fly back out there. Right? I mean, you’d have to work with the weather and what you get and you have to give yourself more time and you have to like, think about that.
Like, okay, we’re going to have to park here, but it might take us half an hour to walk to where we need to get to. And in North Dakota, it takes you five minutes, you know, I mean, there’s no, there’s no looking for a parking spot. Like there’s none of that. So logistically things just take longer and figuring out the locations and exactly when to be there.
It takes a little bit longer, but once you do, it’s magic, right? You’re in a new location, places you’ve never shot at before. They’ve never been there. It’s just like making new core memories with their clients and their moms. Typically it’s just the moms, but. It’s so fun.
Colie: So, time frame wise, when someone contacts you, what is the soonest that you have planned a travel senior session and actually gone? And I guess what’s the longest? Because like, I’ve got a time frame in my mind, but I’m really curious, what’s the soonest that you’ve done and then what’s the longest that you’ve done?
Kellie: I would say the first one was the soonest because I think it was maybe a month or two out and I was like, let’s do it now. And I think that was different because I probably would have taken Isabel on her own had they not wanted to go anyways. So I knew the dates we’re going to go. Do you guys want to come?
I would prefer it be more like a year. Ideally it would be a year. I’ve did shorter. I would say if I’m available and we could do it, I’ll do it. You know, I love to travel, like sign me up. But six months. It’s getting a little sketchy because it was seven kids. I have a lot of schedules to work around and I don’t want to miss their sports or music stuff.
So they, they’re my priority. And then it would be my sessions. Right. And so
Colie: So I’m sure that when you talk about this on social media, because now you are talking about this, you’re talking to other photographers versus only talking to your own clients to get them interested. So I feel like your messaging has really changed. So I feel like you’re also probably getting a lot of questions about this.
And when it comes to me traveling for other people, when I go to the client, the question that I get asked the most is, okay, but what do you do with the logistics and how do you charge for travel? And you know for a fact that I probably do it very differently than you do because when I do a day in the life, I am not needing somewhere to sleep.
I am not needing a mode of transportation because I am spending that entire time in my client’s house. We, you know, we get together the night before I have dinner with the kids that they can get used to me because no one wants a stranger to pop into their bed at like 530 in the morning and start taking pictures.
So it’s. It’s a weekend experience for me, even though I’m only shooting them for one full, very long day. But in your case, you do need to think about lodging and transportation, not just to get there. But like you said, when you are thinking about the places that you’re going to go for the shoots, you have to think about timeframes and like all of these kinds of things.
So how do you handle? the logistics and how do you handle charging appropriately for like that extra time that it’s taking you to do the travel session to be away from your family to book the lodging because one thing that we haven’t mentioned yet is that you are like their travel guide like you are making all of the appropriate reservations except for their flights you’re not making their flights right
Kellie: no, I’ll tell them mine so that if they want to be on the same flight, because like you said, everybody I’ve traveled with has been from my town, which that’s not how I thought it would go. I thought it would be like, I’d meet people from all over the U S and maybe we’d go somewhere they wanted to go or go to their, where they live or, you know, but that’s just not how it worked out.
And this is even better because. I would say almost every single time it’s a friend or someone I know and someone I’m comfortable with. And so for, so the logistics of that is so far, we’ve usually shared an Airbnb and we’ve shared this rental vehicle and we’ve kind of like did it that way. Now I will say when I started to get this going, I worked with my coach and what we decided was.
I have four packages and my top two, they’d have to pick a top two. The first one was like, everything’s included. The second one was it’s two days, you know, so, and they’re quite, I mean, they’re not, they’re not cheap. Right. But I wasn’t charging for my travel the first two years. I wanted to get it going.
And that’s what we thought would be the best thing. I was charging enough in those sessions to cover the cost. Right. So I wasn’t paying out of pocket, but I don’t know that I was actually making very much money. But at the time. I didn’t care. I wanted to travel. That was my goal. So, and now this year is the first year that I’m going to start having them pay for my flight and my stay.
And again, as long as I know them, I’m happy staying with them. I just want my own bedroom and I want my own bathroom.
Colie: And I mean, I will say guys, she mentioned her coach. That is not me. It is Sabrina Gephardt, which most of you guys know from the podcast. It’s okay. I think some people, even though you said coach, I just wanted to make sure that it was clear that it wasn’t me, but I have also advised Kellie many times because I help her with her Dubsado And so, yes, I am so happy to hear that this year you are going to be doing the separate travel fee in order to cover your time. And you’re lodging. Here’s my question, because we haven’t actually had a conversation about this in at least six or seven months, I think. Where did you land on charging people for the travel?
Are you going to go the flat rate route? Or are you going to be calculating costs for the actual flight, Airbnb, and then charging them more exact figures, if you will?
Kellie: I landed on the exact figures and the reason for that is for me to fly and stay in New York City is much different for me to fly and stay in, let’s say, Nashville. And I thought, man, I’d have to charge a lot for one location and maybe not as much at another. And if I was a consumer, I’d be like, I’d want the lesser, you know what I mean?
Like just to know the options. I also do look on like Google flights, you know how you can get in there and see what it’s going to cost on each day. And I’ll try to pick within a couple of days, the cheapest flight for them, because I’m fine with that. That’s how I would do it. If I was booking myself and then.
Reasonable Airbnb and car rental. I don’t need to be super high end. I want to be comfortable, but I don’t need to be like
Colie: And you want your own bedroom and your own bathroom. I just want to say that one more time. No, and I agree. So the way that it has always worked for me, even though I’m coming to my client’s house is they would usually give, give me like a weekend or a month that they wanted me to come on. And the first thing that I would do is check my availability because a lot of the time, you know, they wanted a particular weekend and I already had a photography session booked or maybe my child had, you know, theater, whatever it was.
I mean, I only have 1, but I feel like, you know, I’m like you, I don’t want to miss anything. So I would check those things. But then the other thing that I would do is when I was checking flights, I would tell them, I mean, you said this weekend, but if you wait two weeks, your travel fee is going to be almost 300 less because it is going to cost me less to come to you.
Now, another big difference between us, Kellie. Is I’m Denver, so I can fly almost anywhere in the United States on a direct flight for less than 400 bucks. I have 2 clients that live places that I can’t fly direct and their flights have always been 700 plus. So they’re going to pay, you know, a very high fee regardless.
And for them, it almost didn’t even matter the date. You’re going to pay 800 dollars for that flight regardless, because I got to stop somewhere, but. That’s how I used to handle it. I would tell them, Hey, I mean, I’ve, I’ve priced this weekend. This is going to be your travel fee. If you want to wait two weeks, I’m also available.
And this is going to be your travel fee. And to me, it’s quite a big difference. So it’s up to you, especially when people weren’t trying to get me for like a particular date. Cause I have flown to people’s houses to do birthdays, which sounds a little weird, like, Oh, you’re going to fly into a birthday party.
I mean, it would be a whole day experience, but those were the only ones that. Honestly needed me somewhere on a particular day. And there was very little flexibility in it.
Kellie: Yeah. I wish I could fly from Denver on a direct flight
Colie: I know you do. I mean, I know you do, which actually brings me to this Kellie, have you ever had to reschedule because you couldn’t get out of North Dakota?
Kellie: Not yet. I
Colie: I
Kellie: try to be there. Usually let’s just say it’s even just for one session. I’m usually there three or four nights just to kind of buffer that because you have to write. And knock on wood, on my side then, I don’t want that ever to happen.
Colie: the only reason that I’m asking you is because, uh, last year, Maddie Pashong was flying out of South Dakota for a conference and she got stuck. Not really because of the weather in South Dakota, but she couldn’t get to Dallas because of the ice in Dallas. And, you know, when you are in winter. I’m assuming that your people from North Dakota want to escape somewhere where it’s nice.
So I can totally see you guys Scheduling a really awesome senior session in like January February in San Diego So you don’t really have to worry about the weather in San Diego But you do have to worry about being able to get out of North Dakota. So Because I feel like people are going to have this in the back of their mind, like, Oh my gosh, well, what would happen if we had to cancel?
What would be your plan if for some reason the weather in North Dakota was so bad? Or let’s even say that you got the flu or you know, something else. What, what’s your contingency plan for if a travel senior session needs to be rescheduled?
Kellie: Well, if it’s any of those events, like for, for one, get a refundable flight, right? Everything has to have insurance and have, or, and, or be refundable. I learned that because someone had to cancel last minute and so we just didn’t do it. She paid for everything, you know, it all, it all worked out in the end on, you know, my end of it.
But. I learned from that you need refundable flights. You need to have insurance on where you’re staying on the car, on everything. That way, if that does happen, you’re not out all that money. You just would find another weekend, you know, and that’s a knock on wood. I haven’t had that happen yet, but now I have that in place just in case it does.
Colie: I mean, and that’s awesome. And I’m just going to admit, you know, I’ve been doing travel sessions since 2015. Like, oh, my gosh, almost like a little less than 10 years. And I will say the very 1st travel session that I had planned, it wasn’t a paid session. It was, I was flying to Louisiana to photograph 1 of my students to see if I really wanted to do this day in the life.
Like, I had never done 1. And I wanted to go somewhere and her kids got lice the week before and you guys should see Kellie’s face. So Kellie’s face is like, Oh my God, but I should also tell you guys that as a child, I had lice many, many times. I would get it from school. I had very, very long curly hair, just like I do now.
And so. Like a hundred percent. I don’t even care if you’ve washed your kids and de No, like it’s going to be months before I’m willing to step foot in your house again. And so I did learn something that time because this was 2015. It was before all of the airlines decided that you could change your flights without a fee.
And that flight was only 200 bucks. And guess what the change fee was? 200 bucks. So the whole flight was just gone and there was nothing that I could do about it. And after that, I made a decision. Number one, I would always fly Southwest, or I would fly and get a refundable flight if I was flying on like United or American, which I try to avoid like the plague, but it only took one time for me to put measures in my contract, in the kinds of flights and travel things that I was purchasing to make sure that if any of us needed to reschedule again.
It could happen. Same thing happened when I lost my vision in 2016. I was actually flying to do a Day in the Life session three weeks later, and three weeks later I was still blind. So I, I couldn’t get on the plane, number one, because I couldn’t see, but also the intracranial hypertension, the doctors didn’t want me on the flight.
At that time, I had a refundable ticket. So I canceled it, and then I bought another one when I was able to go to them three months later. But it only takes one time for you to have a contingency. So anybody that’s listening. If you decide that you want to add some kind of travel component to your sessions, just be sure to realize you need to have contingencies in place in case you have to cancel or reschedule, or in case your client has to cancel or reschedule.
Kellie: Yes, a hundred percent do that a hundred percent.
Colie: So, at this point, how many travel sessions would you say that you’ve done and or just tell me how many locations because I’ve seen lots of pictures, but.
Kellie: Well, I did eight last year and the year before that I might’ve did. Well, I took Isabel on so many, I don’t know if that counts, but I mean, we did Disney World. I mean, I know you could appreciate that. With her, I bet we did at least six places just with her alone. This year for sure, I’m gonna do three and the reason why I’m not doing as many is because I have booked a lot more family sessions for my family because Drew’s a senior this year and I think two of them might be moving away next year and I just panicked and I was like, oh man, we need more family sessions because They’re going to be gone and my window is gone of having all of us together.
And so we have like three family trips. And for me, even that’s a lot, but if they’ll come to me there, which I’ve put that out there and I’m putting it out there again in the universe, I could do more. Do you know what I mean?
Colie: they’re going to the same places you’re going to be. Yeah.
Kellie: but so far this year, I’m going to go to Charleston again and then Glacier again, well, they’ll be coming to me and then the Oregon coast again in the fall.
But yeah, last year I did New York city twice, once in April, once in August, I did Colorado end of May. I did the Oregon coast in June and then again in July and I did Idaho and I did Charleston.
Colie: So I’ve got a logistical question about inquiries because I feel like there’s going to be someone that’s like, okay, but do these people just inquire about this kind of session? Or are you upselling them once you get them on the call? So. Are the people who book these travel sessions, are they inquiring directly to you for the travel sessions at she’s shaking her head?
Yes, guys. So then my follow up question is going to be, has there ever been someone who inquired about a regular senior session and then decided? Oh, no, that travel thing sounds really good. Like, how can I do that?
Kellie: I think, yes, Coley, but I think how that happened was the parents would be like, we want senior pictures and the kids watch my feed and they’re like, Oh no, I want a travel session with my senior pictures. And then the parents are like, Oh wait, how would that work out? I haven’t actually upsold those, but I do a lot of behind the scenes on social media.
I post a lot of the pictures. I write blog posts about why I think they’re more valuable. And I think that is what gets the word out more than anything.
Colie: So, sorry, this is my Dubsado coaching hat on. I just realized, if you’re not upselling them, we should probably add a little blip into your, inquiry email. When someone inquires about a regular session, you should probably have something that just talks about the travel sessions before you talk to them, so that, If it’s on their mind or if their kid has said something and they just didn’t realize that it was like a different thing, I’m just, I’m feeling like we could probably upsell some people if we were to, because you live in North Dakota, Kellie.
Like I just, being able to go somewhere amazing for your senior photos. I mean, I didn’t get to do that when I was a senior. I mean, technically I was never a senior. I graduated early, but that’s a whole different story. But I would have loved to have gone somewhere like New York City. And I only lived 90 minutes from New York City at that point.
So that definitely could have happened. It just didn’t.
Kellie: Yes. I think we absolutely need to do that. That’s why you’re the expert in Depsado and I am not.
Colie: Well, you know what? Sometimes I mean, I’m just going to tell you this on the call, but like other people, I’m listening to them. And when we stop recording, I’m just like, and by the way, you said this and I think that you should go do this. And then you’ll upset. Yeah. So we’re going to chat about this after we stop hitting recording.
Okay. So we’ve talked about the logistics. We’ve talked about what you’re doing to get the word out, which is you’ve started really talking about it in your social media. You’ve got blog posts that are, you know, written for SEO in order to bring people in. When I have had other senior photographers on this podcast, a lot of them have,
like senior ambassadors, I can’t think of the proper word, but do you ever have people who are booking the travel sessions because the people that you’ve already done have been like talking to their friends, and that is how people find out about them?
Kellie: I think so. Yes. Because if you look at my group of people, they’re usually friends.
Colie: Mm
Kellie: And, or, and, or siblings of somebody I’ve already did a session of. Um, Isabel was a competitive dancer for many years. And so I’ve did a few of the dance girls as travel sessions. And I think just like knowing me and knowing what she did put the thought in their head, basically.
Something I didn’t mention too, was several of those trips were, friends that went together. You know what I mean? It was two seniors. Once it was, they were cousins, but also friends. Once they were best friends. One was one of Drew’s friends. It’s very common for me to have two seniors.
Colie: Okay. And it’s helpful that your mom comes with you and she shoots, so you have a second shooter just in your back pocket to come with you always.
Kellie: yes. And that seems to be another selling point as well. And I’m not even selling that point, but I think that’s how they sell it to like their moms. Like, Hey, what if my best friend could go and her mom could go? Cause you guys are friends. We can make this into a girl’s trip. And they’re like, yeah, what if we did that?
Colie: Mm hmm.
Kellie: So I love that.
Colie: So, how long does the book, does the booking process for your travel sessions take longer than your regular sessions? Like, does it take you a while to be able to do the research or do you have it down to where if someone inquires on a Monday and you’re talking to them on Wednesday, you have already done all the research, priced all the options or does that happen after the consultation call?
Kellie: After the call, once I know that they want to do it, then I’ll look into like, what are the flights going to cost? What would it cost to rent a house? What would the, you know, the rental car cost? Just to give them an idea. Typically they know if they’re going to do it or not right then, even before they have the costs.
But I don’t do the research yet because a lot of times, exactly a hundred percent. That’s exactly why.
Colie: I got you. So you’re not doing the research until after they have given you a soft commit, which I 100 percent applaud.
I think that’s a great idea. But if you have a consultation call on a Wednesday, how long is it taking you to price out those options and be able to give them a proposal inside of Dubsado where they can book it immediately once they get it?
Kellie: I would say within 48 hours, because I’m the type of person, like, get it back to me right away while I thinking about it and want to do it, I think the longer you wait, the less likely they are to, you know, or how it’d be like, Oh, maybe I don’t know about that, but I think when they’re excited, get it right to them, get it booked, get everything figured out. how I do it.
Colie: And of course, you have a proposal where you can just quickly go in and change the location and just insert that pricing. And it’s ready to go. 1 thing that I’ve had a couple of people say on this podcast before. Are you swapping images? If you already have images from that location. So, like, let’s say that it’s a boy.
And he’s inquiring about New York City, and I happen to know that you’ve already done at least 1 trip with boys in New York City. Would you take the time to swap the images on the proposal to be pictures of New York City in the correct gender of the subject or do you feel like at that point? They’ve already given you a soft commit.
Like, you don’t need to take that extra step.
Kellie: I don’t do the extra step. I could see where that’d be appealing, but I feel like they’ve already figured out if they want to do it or not. They’ve probably seen something on social media where they’re like. I saw you took pictures of Drew in New York City. I know I want to go to the Brooklyn Bridge as well.
You know what I mean? They’ve kind of visualized themselves in that spot. But I could see where that would be a really good idea for someone to do. So I’m going to put that in my
Colie: well, I just planted that
Kellie: Yep.
Colie: Let’s talk about locations because this is when we’re gonna start to wrap this up. So they’ve inquired You’ve had a consultation with them. They’ve given you a soft commit. You go do all the research. You present them with a proposal that they can use to book.
After that, I’m assuming that’s when you go off and book your own travel and book the house and the car and make sure that all of that is set. And then at what point do you start specifically talking? Locations, um, with them. And by location, I don’t mean the city. I mean, like the actual locations where you will be doing these, you know, multiple stops for their photographs.
Kellie: Sometimes it’s when I’m finding the Airbnb, just because like, say in Oregon, like if they know they want to have the Goonies beach, we’re going to find a little town closer to that because it’s about an hour and a half from where we find a Portland to get there. But there’s lots of little towns along the way.
Right? So, and there’s lots of cool beaches. So, depending on what I know they want to do. I’ll base that on the Airbnb. So sometimes it’s when we’re talking about that part of it, but then other times it’s like you said, Koli, like say Charleston, I don’t need to know exactly where we’re going to be. I would just book the Airbnb and get the rental for doing a rental and then go back to them and later and be like, okay, here’s where I shot.
Do you want to do something like this or do you want to do something totally new? That’s when I would figure that out.
Colie: Now, do you find that people like I can see New York City, everybody knows the Brooklyn Bridge, unless you live under a rock. But in some of these other places, they might not have specific locations in mind. But is there a part of your process where you allow them to kind of give you that input if they have it?
Or are you presenting them with different location options at the same time? That they might tell you, Oh, no, you know, I know that there’s this one location that I really want to go to. And then they tell you at that point.
Kellie: Well, I’m glad you asked that. So when we went to Colorado, I’d never been to that location and they went there all the time. So I let them come to me and be like, These are the three places I know we want to go to. I just went and scouted them out the day of or the night before at the same time to see where lighting would be and stuff.
But I just need them to tell me where they wanted to go. And then I would figure out my other side of it. I actually like that better because they’ve been there. They know that there’s a cool stream or a cool waterfall and that, you know, they can visualize it already. If not, like I said, I will use apps.
I will talk to other people. I will get on Pinterest. I will do whatever to do as much research as I can on my end of it. To make sure that it’s easier for me, but I like them to tell me the spots if I’ve never been there and they have, and they’ve chosen location because of that. That makes sense to me,
Colie: Okay. And just to let you know, Kellie has a fabulous freebie to help you scout specifically for these travel sessions. If any of you are interested in adding them to your offer suite, and that is currently linked in the show notes. Okay, Kellie. I feel like we have run the gamut of kind of what I see as people are interested and they have like all of these logistical things that they’ve been thinking about.
And so I feel like we’ve done as much of that as we can in a podcast format. Is there anything else that you kind of feel is worth mentioning that I didn’t ask about?
Kellie: not that I can think of, but I think if someone wanted to get into travel, I would do what I did that first 2 years. I would. Make your packages high enough to where it’s covering your travel costs. You may not be making money, but if you just want to travel and get that started to do that and get a portfolio made up so that at some point you can ask for them to pay for your travel costs.
And I’m glad I did it that way because I don’t think I would be where I’m at today had I not did that because of where I live. I should back that up. I can only fly Delta or United out of here and it’s
Colie: She’s so limited y’all. I mean,
Kellie: If I had a two, yeah,
Colie: What’s funny, because when people ask me about travel and sometimes I tell people, no, I just, I don’t even, I don’t even charge separate because people are always amazed when I say, no, if someone’s in Dallas, I just don’t ever charge travel. And they’re like, why I’m like, because the flight is always less than 200 bucks.
I don’t need a car and I don’t need a house. I have those there. Like, I don’t need any of that. And I’m like, and my prices are high enough to absorb a 200 dollar plane ticket. Plus. When I go, I’m probably going to visit family. I mean, and I can see the same thing in you. Whereas you’re like, okay, but like, I’m going to go to this place anyways.
A majority of the time, you’re like, no, I just want to go travel. And Hey, I’m going to take along a senior. I’m going to get some fabulous photos. They’re going to pay me for my session. And that is just a trip that I didn’t have to pay for it. Plus I make a little money on top of that. So I totally get where you’re coming from Kellie.
Kellie: that was my goals. Like it wasn’t a financial goal. It was a travel goal. You know what I mean? And that changed your whole mindset of things. Right?
Colie: And I will say, though, guys, she’s also not cheap. So, I mean, even though she’s saying she barely made any money, I mean, she, the only reason that she’s saying she barely made money is because she lives in North Dakota and her flights are so high. If she lived in Denver, she would still be clearing at least 4 figures, maybe, you know, almost 2K on a session if she had cheaper stuff to leave from Denver.
So I just want to put that out there.
Kellie: yes, yes. You’re a hundred percent correct on that.
Colie: Yes. All right, Kellie, if people want to come find you on Instagram to follow all of your behind the scenes, because, um, everyone, even if you don’t want to add travel sessions, I would go follow Kellie on Instagram just so that you can see how she gets all the behind the scenes footage, because there are probably some of you that can benefit from adding that to your Instagram.
So, where can they find you?
Kellie: I am at Kellie Rochelle photography on Instagram and on Facebook and on Pinterest.
Colie: Okay, and all of that is going to be linked in the show notes. Kellie, it was fabulous to see you on my screen.
Kellie: I had so much fun, Kali. I knew you’d be like so easy. As soon as you said, I don’t have like set questions. I was like, yes.
Colie: Yes, no questions. All right, everyone. I certainly hope that by listening to Kellie and and listening to her talk about her journey about how she went from just offering senior sessions in North Dakota to getting local clients to travel with her to these amazing places so that those seniors could have senior sessions that they would think about, you know, and have pictures from forever.
I do hope that you’ve walked away. With something from this podcast. And if you are interested in adding these to your offer suite, I highly recommend that you check Kellie out on Instagram and also her website. All right. That’s it for this episode. See you next time.
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