How Jess Built Her Business on Hawaiian Vacations with Jess Fernandez
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When you’re building a photography business, you’re often focused on marketing to your local market—but what if your target audience actually consists of tourists who don’t live near you? Jess Fernandez built her business on exactly that: Hawaiian vacations.
Living in Maui, Jess realized that the best portrait market for her to dive into was within documenting vacations for tourists. Listen in as Jess shares how she built her business running Google ads for three months, investing time into her SEO, and creating an experience that led to repeat clients and referrals.
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Here are the highlights…
[1:38] Get to Know Jess
[5:46] From Starting Ads to Booking Clients
[9:09] The Pandemic Hustle—SEO Strategy
[9:40] SEO Over Google Ads
[11:49] Current Business Set Up
[13:31] Convincing Vacationers She’s the Right Photographer
[15:58] Repeat & Referrals
[17:37] Is Google Ads a Viable Option for New Businesses?
[21:06] Keywords
[22:21] Beyond Family Photography
[24:51] Life Changes & The Longevity of Business
[27:32] Outsourcing IPS
[32:45] What Jess Outsources
[34:56] Biggest Fuck Up
Mentioned in the Episode
Connect with Jess
Website: mauifamily.photography
IG: @mauifamilyphoto
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hello, hello and welcome back to the Business First Creatives podcast. I am chatting with my friend Jess Fernandez, who is like the most amazing family photographer ever. She is based in Maui, Hawaii. And that happens to be one of my favorite places on Earth. But also I feel like you guys all know I would never do outdoor sessions like unless it’s at Disneyland.
But I’m very tempted to just go to Hawaii so that I can have family photos from her. I might even put on like a flowy dress. Like that sounds crazy. Jess, welcome to my podcast.
Jess: Hi, Toley. Thank you.
Colie: We finally got to hug in-person guys at photo native here in 2023. It was so amazing. But I was like, Jess, I really need you to come on my podcast because you do something that’s very unique. I mean, she’s a family photographer. She photographs people outside. That’s not really unique, but the fact that she has an entire business, Based on basically vacationers inside of Hawaii, I think is a really interesting thing because I feel like when it comes to building your business and building your clientele, everyone’s always like, okay, but I live somewhere that it’s just vacationers.
Like how do I build a business on that? So that is why Jess is here today.
Jess: So excited.
Colie: Ah. So Jess, tell me, tell me about starting your business. How long have you been in business, and how did it evolve into like the amazing thing that it is now?
Jess: So I’ve officially had my business since 2019 and when. I started, I had been kind of a career second shooter and associate photographer for several years. My kids were little. It was really nice to just get work handed to me and not have to find my own clients. And then basically
I was in a bad marriage that I had to get out of and I had to like figure out how to be a single mom and provide for my kids. So I’m like, okay, I can’t survive off associate shooter income anymore. I gotta just bite the bullet and go on my own and figure this out. So I literally got a hostessing job and with that $12 an hour, I put every dollar of that into Google Ads and started my own business.
So that was kind of like, that was like my. My motivation, that’s what ma got me going. And I didn’t really, I didn’t have a chance to second guess myself. I just had to go for it. And figuring out how do I find clients that are everywhere, but here was such a learning curve for sure.
Colie: Jess, I did not know that you built your business on Google ads. Like, okay, we’re gonna just take a side step cuz that’s not where I thought this conversation was going. But I have been meaning to have someone on the podcast that like uses ads in order to grow their client roster. So I. First, let’s just give the listening audience not a full breakdown, but like out of like in a year, what’s the percentage of people that you shoot locally versus the percentage of people who are visiting the island for vacation?
Jess: So this is, I’m gonna sound insane, but last year I photographed 429 families. In a year. One of them lives on the island, like outside of like my friends, you know, but of people who go online, find me and book me one out of them lived on the
Colie: One.
Jess: Mm-hmm.
Colie: Guys, I wish you could see my face. So this is one of those things where I told you guys, I stopped sending people questions because I wanted the conversation to be very natural. But like, you should see my face. I’m like one, first of all, 429, Jess.
Jess: I know.
Colie: my God. But also, I mean, I don’t really get the impression of that many sessions from, I mean, and I’m sure you’re not sharing every single session on your social media and all that jazz, but Okay, so you definitely do not lack for clients.
That is amazing.
Jess: Yeah, and I’m sure we’ll dive into this, but just like my session structure and. Pricing and it’s been a slow evolution, but from when I started, I was offering all like mini sessions all year round, so not all of those 429 were like full sessions. Sometimes I do like four or five mini sessions in a morning once a week or something, but I didn’t want anyone to freak out and be like, oh my gosh,
Colie: Well,
Jess: nine hour long sessions.
Colie: Well, I mean also we have to think about where you live. I mean, you know, people are not wanting like that really long session when they come to you, they’re on the island for vacation and they basically just want like photos to remember that they were there and get a little sliver of like the beautiful beaches and the backgrounds and their photos.
So, I mean, I totally get it, but. Okay, let’s talk about Google Ads because you put all of your money into your Google Ads. How long was it before you started seeing a steady stream of leads? Not necessarily booked clients, but like leads.
Jess: Three months really. So I kind of started my Google Ads account in April. I. I was on YouTube constantly teaching myself. I did it all myself. But I will say Google Ads is definitely a very specific type of customer. Like they’re not my ideal customer by any means. They’re price shopping and they just, it’s not a dream client really.
They’re not looking for like, My art necessarily. They’re shopping and they’re picking maybe the first thing that comes up, it’s the easiest, whatever. So it took me from April and then by really July, I was booking out the next few months all from ads until, and that was kind of my plan to do that until I could get my SEO where it needed to be.
Colie: Jess, you often tell me you don’t have a brain for business, starting with Google Ads and then working on your sel. Girl, you, you got a lot more going for you than you think you do. Okay? So Google ads tick. Three months until you started to see the leads. Now, how much money were you spending per month in the beginning?
And did you keep it outta steady or did you eventually, like as you were getting more leads, as you were booking more clients, did you end up putting more money into your ads or did you eventually trickle down when like your SEO started to hit the spots that it needed to?
Jess: I. I started pretty full on with Google Ads because that was kind of what I had researched, was investing in Google Ads upfront will kind of give you more credibility with it. So from the beginning, I was putting about $800 a month into it, but then by July had a $10,000 month booked for August. So I would say $800 investment to get $10,000 worth of work.
Workbook was, and I also, I actually learned this from, I don’t know if you guys remember Hustle and Flow, the Hans way back. So I went to, I can’t remember what their workshop was called, but I went to their workshop. They were big Google ads or Facebook ads. They were ads people. But um, They were very much like, you have to have like this fastest response time, super personal, like, so that was my approach with those Google ads people too, is I would respond right back with, I was using HoneyBook at the time, so I would respond immediately with my proposal, my invoice, everything within an hour, no chance for them to even book anyone else,
Colie: Mm-hmm.
Jess: and that was how I would hook ’em.
Colie: Jess, you know, that makes my heart, my automation. Heart is
very happy. Cuz you know, and especially with who you were booking, like you said, those initial people weren’t really coming to, coming to you for your art. They weren’t coming to you for like a really big experience. They just wanted photos on the island.
And I mean, that’s definitely not what you do now cuz you definitely make beautiful art now. But, so $800 to make 10 K in bookings. And that’s a, that’s an awesome return on investment. So that was your first year though? That was April and then to July. And then August was your first 10 K month. Did you continue to like, put that amount of money into Google Ads or is your strategy now, cause I mean that was three years ago.
Like how does your strategy now compare to what it was in that very first year?
Jess: So that was April, 2019, and then one year later, the world shut down. Yeah. So I took. My like, and Hawaii was closed. I mean, California too, but Hawaii and California were closed for so long that I really took. March, 2020 through August of 2020 to just like hustle my website and my seo. Like I just did everything I could.
So by the time that Hawaii was reopening, I was ranking number one on Google. I had stopped my Google ads in March, obviously no one’s coming. Um, but then by August I was definitely rank, I was like, between one and three I would bounce around. And so I, once the island got going in, I was, and then posting on Instagram regularly.
I’d never went back to Google Ads after that.
Colie: I’m sorry. I’m sorry for those of you that are listening to me laughing. I, I did not know this part of the story. So, Jess, do you mean to tell me that you built your entire business in four months of Google? Well, okay. No wait, that’s a lot longer. So it was four months to get your first 10 K month, and then you continued Google ads for another, I think that’s seven, maybe eight months.
And then you were done. So basically you ran Google Ads for one year and you built your entire business off of that.
Jess: Yeah.
Colie: Wow. So what does your business look like now like you said, you shot 429 sessions. Let’s, I, I don’t wanna make you do math live on a podcast, but let’s talk about this. So would you say that half of those were mini sessions, or more or less?
Jess: Probably ha uh, maybe a little less than half. And I was also priced at a point where the mini session really wasn’t like, like my mini session was like 300 bucks, but you could get a full session for 500 was kind of where my pricing structure was at the time. So yeah, if you just want one picture on the beach, fine book, a mini session.
But I
Colie: And it’s still gonna be $300.
Jess: yeah. Yeah. And, and I eventually had gotten. You know, I did the mini sessions for 2 95 and I would only book ’em back to back with others. Like I had all these disclaimers, like they had to be flexible on their date. I’d bunch them up, and then they would only get, and then eventually I shifted to the $300, but then they had to buy more photos and I tried i p s and ShootProof and tried all these, all these, I’ve tried it all, but.
Colie: So where are you at now? What is your pricing structure now? Like? Mini sessions, full sessions, all inclusive. I p s. Upgrading your collections. Where you at, girl?
Jess: So I do no more mini sessions. My shorter session is an hour. I’m 1100 starting. So I have a $1,100 session or a $1,600 session. I only include web size images. I’m not giving full rez. I’m doing through pick time. Like a gallery credit and I’m actually seeing a lot of people like using the all credit and spending more. So I’m making that money and I’m kind of mad at myself that I wasn’t doing that the whole
Colie: that before
Jess: Yeah. Yeah. So that, that’s definitely been a really good learning for me the past few months. It’s like leaving money on the table with print sales.
Colie: I am someone who, personally, after I have a session, like I usually, I mean, you guys, you can see some of my Disney art behind me from photographers that I’ve hired to come to Disney.
I mean, I usually print and frame, I would say at least three to five images from every session that I’ve ever booked. And they’re, you know, all over my house. But I have to admit, like if we ever actually did a session on a Hawaiian beach, I would probably print like a 30 by 40 and have it like as the masterpiece in my living room.
So I. I definitely agree that if people weren’t buying prints of their art before, like they, you were leaving money on the table by just giving them all the digitals, and I’m not even like a big i p s print credit kind of person, but I can definitely see that for you. Now I know a question that our audience would have though is, but these are vacationers, like how do you convince them to book a session with you at 1100 or $1,600 and then also go through i p s when they could book something, somebody in your area for like so much cheaper, like just why you, why are you so fabulous? Like, how do you get them to say yes?
Jess: I think my brand is me as a mom with my kids, my clients. I’ve always kind of, and I’m shifting this a little too, I kind of had always approached my business from a point of like if I’m my ideal customer or ideal client, and now I’m shifting a little more, like I think that my ideal client is actually like, A lot wealthier and bougier than me, but, from really building my business from a standpoint of me, like I just wanna connect with these moms and I wanna give them something that I actually want, that I think has just been really authentic and that has sold me to them without even trying.
Colie: Because, I mean, let’s talk about a Hawaiian vacation. Like if I, if I was gonna sit down and plan a Hawaiian vacation right now, it, things are much different than when I was on the islands last. I haven’t been to Hawaii since I turned 30. I turned 30 in Maui. My husband turned 30 on Oahu.
And we went to Hawaii before we went to those two islands. So we did like an entire 10 days of island hopping. When we turned 30. It was a big thing for us. We were starting fertility treatments. We actually bought a house while we were in Hawaii, like we bought our first townhouse here. It was, you know, they were closing while we were in Hawaii.
So, I mean, it was a big time for us. And although we thought we would get back to Hawaii, we haven’t yet, but like I know how much money I spent in, what was that? 20? 20, 0 9. I mean, it’s. 2023 now, like things are so much more expensive. And so even though we’re like, well wow, you know, $1,100 or $1,600 for a session fee, like for the people that you’re targeting, that’s probably a drop in the hat compared to what they’re spending on their overall vacation.
Cuz flights to Hawaii are very expensive. Even Airbnbs, I mean, when we went it was V B R O. Do you remember
that? Like that’s what we stayed at when we were, um, on the island except Oahu. We stayed in a hotel, but. I mean, even if you are, I don’t wanna say penny pinching, but like if you’re doing a moderate vacation to Hawaii right now, I’m sure most families are spending four or five, six grand to get to the island, and so I would just see your 1100, $1,600 photography as an extension, as like just, you know, you just added in to all of the other money that you’re spending for this vacation.
Let me ask you about repeat clients. Have you had any repeat clients jess?
Jess: I get a lot. Yeah. And referrals too. Like people who come and then they go home and then everyone that they know at home they send to me, which is really nice. But I do, I have, I. I would probably say 20% of my business is repeat clients who come every year, and they have stuck with me. I had a session last week, she started with me a mini-session in 2019, and she’s booked me every year and just goes on my website and books me at whatever price I’m at.
And like those clients have, like, I’m grow, like their kids are growing up with me. Like, you know, it’s, I know people have that it like, In the mainland, it’s very normal to have clients stick with you for their lifetime. But here it’s not normal. So I just feel so I value those so much.
Colie: No, I agree, Jess, and I’m really, I’m really happy that you mentioned that because that is one of the things that I talk a lot about is lifetime client value. And I know that when people have vacationers they say, oh no, but like my clients are just here on vacation. Yes. But people are creatures of habit.
Like if they come to the island and they enjoy themselves, chances are, even if they’re not coming every year, maybe they’re coming every two years or every three years or every five years, and if they had an amazing photography session with you, they’re probably going to be looking forward to that photography session the next time that they visit the island again as just another part of their vacation experience.
So, Let’s get back to Google Ads. What if you were starting your business now, what would you do differently? Would you still run Google Ads or would you do something different?
Jess: I think I would for like, I don’t know how else to reach people targeted. Anywhere else? Honestly, Facebook ads. I never really dabbled in Facebook ads, but that could be something. But I’ve also noticed that Facebook client, like the clients I get off Facebook, are so different than the Instagram clients and they’re so different than the Google client.
Oh my gosh. So I guess it’s just whatever your vibe is, like someone might be like a Facebook, if Facebook is your bread and butter, like Facebook adss might be the thing for you. But I think I would do it the same.
Colie: So have you dabbled on TikTok?
Jess: So I had a girl helping me with social media for a little bit and she was putting, posting on TikTok for me. And I have got a few clients off from TikTok, but not moms. Like couples will book me off TikTok. So I think that my. My, my age, like my client, like moms my age, aren’t searching on TikTok.
We’re all kind of old and on Instagram.
Colie: I’m older than you, Jess. You know that. And I don’t, I don’t do the TikTok. My 12 year old does the TikTok. But one thing, I can’t even remember who it was on the podcast, but someone told me that TikTok was the same to millennials as Google is to us.
Like, cuz like you said, I know, right? Aren’t you shocked?
Jess: yes.
Colie: the thing is, when I wanna know how to do something, when I wanna make a new recipe in my Instapot, or I’m trying to plan my vacation, I’m trying to do any of those things. I’m Googling, like I’m typing it into Google Chrome and I’m looking at the responses that I get.
And so if I was looking for a Hawaiian family photographer, and you were still running ads, I would probably see your work, right? But what they were saying about like the millennials, And I can’t, I don’t know what generation is, is earlier than that, but that they are going to TikTok, if they wanna find a recipe to make for dinner tonight, they’re actually using TikTok as a search engine.
And when someone told me that, like, you should have seen my face, I was like, what? And when they said, yeah. And I was like, but that’s okay cuz like, My ideal client is not someone who’s 20. Like, that’s not my ideal client. And so I’m continuing to like, you know, post on Instagram and do Google, because that’s where my ideal client is.
But as your ideal client maybe gets younger, they are saying that TikTok is like the new search engine. But I just wondered if like now in 2023, if you would do it any differently?
Cuz you’re right, you are hitting people. You have a very unique problem in that you really can’t do locally based seo in terms of where the client lives. It’s always in terms of where they’re searching. To go, which is a little different than what most of us think of when we think about running photography ads for our business.
Jess: Yep. And I always targeted like US mainland. Canada
Colie: Mm-hmm.
Jess: and not really, cuz you could go anywhere, right? Like we get less after Covid, but we would get Australian and Asia. So I’d mainly just focus on US mainland. That’s my, the whole US mainland is my target market.
Colie: Well, and then it’s, I mean, it’s specifically showing it to people who are Googling things, like, okay, let’s think about your AdWords. I mean, it was a long time ago. Jess, if you can’t remember, I will totally forgive you, but what were the, what were the key words?
Jess: I think it’s still the same what I do for seo, right? Just like Maui Family photographer, Maui Family photos. I think back then too, I was targeting like affordable Hawaii budget, stuff like that. But. Yeah, Maui
Colie: You’re like, those are
Jess: And that’s, and that’s why I made, well in my biggest, like I made my business name Maui family Photo for s e o for Instagram, search for everything, which at the time I was like, I am so lame.
This is so lame. And I just embrace it and built a brand around. And I think that that was a huge, like, that’s gotten me everywhere with SEO and organic search.
Colie: So this makes a lot more sense. I’ve always wondered why you weren’t using your name. People are actually Googling Maui family photographer because that’s what they wanna do when they come to the island. So that just makes so much more sense. And I don’t think that you could ever move because then you’d lose all that really amazing s e o, like we’re never gonna see a jessfernandez.com
Jess: no,
Colie: unless you did that for your like commercial work. So let’s talk about commercial work because you do more than family photography. What else do you do, Jess?
Jess: I. Have always kind of dabbled in weddings and like I shoot film, I shoot a lot of film more. So it’s just kind of like what keeps me really inspired and feeling creative. Depends on, I bring my film camera to every shoot, but sometimes when the kids are wild it just doesn’t come out of my bag. But.
My, my wedding work, I’ve always been like, primarily film, but the wedding industry here is really cutthroat and competitive and tight knit, which I’m sure it is in a lot of markets. So I’ve just kind of like, I’ve got kind of bounced in and out of trying and couples or, you know, anything else. And I honestly, families are just like where my heart is.
It’s the season of life that I’m in and, yeah, I’ve done some branding stuff. Like I work, like I have a really close friend who has a swim company, so like I shoot for her. Yeah, it’s so fun and I’ve got to work with some really cool influencers and travel places with them, which has been so fun.
But really it’s because it’s a mommy and me matching swimwear company. So that is still very in line with my. My heart and my passion where I think that, you know, I’ve done like head shots for realtors and that’s just not like where
Colie: shots for realtors.
Jess: No,
Colie: for a paycheck maybe, but just in general, Jess, I can’t see you doing that. What I will say though, I mean, I know you have someone helping you with seo, but, and your SEO for families is clearly getting you what you need. But if you created like another page on your website and it was just linked in your menu and it was like brand photos for businesses that cater to families, if you started advertising yourself as. Doing brands, doing brand photography for businesses that cater to families like a mommy and me swimwear or like a toy company or like someone who plans Hawaiian vacations,
Jess: I love that.
Colie: kinds of things. I just, I think that you could really knock it out of the park with those kinds of things because everything that makes your family photography magical would then translate into those kinds of business photos for other people.
Jess: Thank you so much. I love that.
Colie: Like how long do you think the season of life where you focus on family photography is gonna last?
And then where do you think you’re gonna go next?
Jess: I haven’t announced this on Instagram yet, but I’m pregnant again, so thanks. So, um, Yeah. So I’m like, I’m still very much in it, and I think that now restructuring my business, like the price point that I’m at, I feel valued. I’m okay with leaving the, leaving the house for $1,100, you know? So I think that.
Really like getting a good schedule. Like right now I’m only working Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I have four days off a week. Just balance and being able to be more present for my kids and just more structure around my business because for three full years of business, it was a free for all like I was.
Just running and staying up all night and editing all night. And we can talk about outsourcing, but I wasn’t outsourcing anything. Yeah. So, um, a lot of lessons that I learned the hard way and now that I have my business really dialed in, I actually am in love with it. And so then I can really show up for my clients the way I should be showing up for them.
But I think as long as my kids are little, I’m very much in it. I think. Once I get older, I have thought about the brand work stuff. I think that that would just be fun for me. My mom really wants me to like make my kids all be models and just photograph my kids and be an influencer. That’s my mom’s master plan for me.
So I don’t know. We’ll see.
Colie: The first time that I did a session for the dental company, we had models and they came in and when I was done the next day I was like, okay, I mean, I did a great job. Don’t, don’t get me wrong. I shot everything that you guys, I was like, but there’s just, there’s some things missing. I was like, can someone go back to the same practice and open it for me and I need another hour?
I took Chloe. I took my niece and I took my sister partially because I, I wanted more black models. That was the first thing. And then their chief marketing officer had her sister come with her two kids. So then I got like some of the things that I wasn’t able to get in the chaos, cuz I mean, the day before we had had like, I mean, Adults and kids, probably 20 models.
Like it was a lot. And I was just like, there was just like, there were certain things that like I can see now that in a calmer environment I would’ve been able to get. And the funny thing is those are the ones that ended up being like, The billboard shots on the website, like the above the fold, that kind of thing.
So I was really glad that we went back, but I’m just, I’m telling you this because I think it’s funny. Like if I could just run around and photograph a bunch of stuff and have Chloe model, that would be great. But now she’s 12 and she has an attitude problem. So Jess, your time is limited. That’s my point of bringing this up. All right, let’s talk about outsourcing. Jess, you are the first person on this podcast. Talk about outsourcing your I P S. How long have you been doing it?
Jess: About six months.
Colie: Okay, and it’s working for you,
Jess: It’s working. It’s definitely been a learning curve for my clients.
Colie: okay?
Jess: People aren’t used to it really here, like, especially when you’re price shopping, like I’m one of the only ones doing it. So I’ve had a couple of sales calls where the client is a little, like, appalled that they don’t get, they’re high-res digital.
So it’s definitely a learning curve. And I’m also, I just launched my new website in branding. So.
Colie: about that, a photo native.
Jess: Oh, I’m so excited about it. I haven’t even put it on Instagram yet, but we just launched it this weekend, like made it live. So I do need to kind of like work on that a little bit of like educating my clients more about print in my website.
And then it’ll also like, you know, translate over to Instagram as well. I’m. Printing more photos in my own home and we just got a really beautiful album of a recent session we had so that I can like make content of my kids with our prints. But I think that just me putting it out there will organically educate my clients on the value.
But that’s where I met with print sales.
Colie: Ah, Jess, you know where I’m gonna go. We’re gonna work on that, on those CRM emails, because I feel like that’s probably where else you’re lacking is after they book, but before the session, at least one or two emails where you’re showing products. And then after the session when they’re still in, like the session glow, but before you give them the actual images. I would have another email highlighting your products, detailing how the sales call’s gonna go, all that good stuff. Cuz education, like you said, like education is key and as long as you’re keeping it front of mind how everything is gonna work, it’s more likely that your clients are gonna be into it and they’re gonna see it as like a value added thing.
Because I think that’s where a lot of people miss the mark. People are like, oh, I don’t wanna do I p s I don’t wanna do sales. Like, I just wanna give them their images. But you. Helping them decide what to print and putting it on their wall is a value-driven activity. Like so many people wish that they had been forced to like print their images because, I mean, sessions are great and I’m always happy when I get my images back, but like when I print my images and they’re on my walls and like, you know, I walk by them every day.
They give me like a little glow. It reminds me that it’s time to go to Disney. I mean,
Jess: Yes, yes. I recently went to a workshop, with Naomi Hopkins. She’s amazing. But she said that from the very first time that she talks to her client, like potential clients from inquiry, she’s like, okay, where in your home are you envisioning these pictures? And I’m like, whoa. Mind blown moment. Like, so you’re planting the seeds from the beginning of these are so much more than going on your Instagram.
Colie: Yes. And, I’m not even sure that it’s a planting the seed kind of thing, because Have you ever done one of those ideal client avatar activities? It’s funny. What I’ve always told everyone who forced me to do one was that my clients have nothing in common except the fact that they love photos on the walls.
Jess: Oh.
Colie: Not jobs, not kids, not where people vacation, not sports that their kids play. I mean, I have a very like wide gamut of people who hire me, but the one thing that every single person, with the exception of two clients in 10 years had in common is that my clients have photos all over their walls.
And I’m not talking about professional clients, I’m talking about like pictures that they took on their cell phone, like they like to print and see their photos. And even though I wasn’t offering. To frame your art and put it on the walls for a very long time. My clients did it for themselves, and so I was naturally attracting a person that wanted to do more with photos than just let them sit on a computer drive.
And so the more that you talk about photos, the easier that is to translate into getting people who want to do that and then want to pay you more money to make sure that it gets done. Like I had a gallery wall in the old house, in the living room. Every time I swapped my images, I would film it. Like I would video it on my phone and I would put it on Instagram.
And even before I did print sales, like my clients would contact me and be like, oh my gosh, Coley, like I need to print the pictures from our last session before you come next month. Like, which ones do you think would look good? Like, which ones should I print big? And I mean, I was giving them advice even though I wasn’t selling them the photos, but like, I would in between sessions, like notice where my clients put the pictures up.
Oh my gosh. I photographed one of my clients for the fourth time on Saturday, and I hadn’t been to their house since. They ordered like an entire wall of thin wrap prints from me, for Christmas last year, entire wall. It was. 17 pictures. 17 pictures that they ordered at once. Like, like some of them were only eight by twelves, but like, I think the biggest one that they ordered was a 20 by 30.
They ordered a couple of them, but like an entire wall, and like it just, it makes me so happy. But those people, if you emphasize the art and printing them, those are the people that will naturally come to you.
Jess: Yes. I love that.
Colie: All right, girl. So you outsource your website because you just said it got redone, which by the way, I took a peek.
It’s amazing. I’m gonna look, when we stop talking, you outsource your I P s. Is there anything else that you outsource?
Jess: I outsource my blogging, which has been huge. I outsource my editing. I outsource my emails, invoicing. I pretty much outsource everything at this point. I outsourced my dubs auto setup. Now I’m, now that my branding’s done, I’m so excited to like, make it pretty. Yeah, I think I’ve, I think that’s,
Colie: everything.
Jess: I think that’s
Colie: wondering how she can do 429 sessions, it’s because literally Jess is not doing anything else in her business.
Jess: And that’s, that’s been my goal for a long time. I wanna show up and shoot and that’s it. So, yeah, I even my calling, like I have a girl who, she lives down the street and she literally, I shoot a couple sessions, she comes, she swaps the hard drive out, takes it. So, yeah.
Colie: All right, Jess, we have talked about everything we have come to like that final question that I ask everyone, and that is, what was your biggest fuck up in your business? What did you learn from it, and how did you grow?
Jess: I wouldn’t really consider anything a fuck up because I’ve really, like, everything has been such an opportunity. So I guess my biggest fuck up was not having two memory cards in my camera and one memory card. And the one memory card getting corrupted and losing someone’s whole session.
Colie: Oh my God.
Jess: I know, I know.
Colie: Did, did you know before they left the island?
Jess: Nope.
Colie: Oh, so what did you learn from that, Jess? Two cards. What
Jess: two cards.
I think that even, and it was, it was a smaller session and the kids were, it was teenage kids, so I was, it was very, a very lucky situation that it wasn’t like they come to Maui every year. You, it wasn’t like a once in a lifetime trip where they was it, they have a newborn and you know, their kids didn’t change in that much time.
So it was definitely a very lucky situation, but I think that really, I learned how valuable what I do is, I think sometimes I can be like, you know, we all get like a little numb to what we do and it’s just kind of like, okay, another picture on your vacation. You took a hundred photos on your phone that day.
You know, like, and so then I was just like, that client specifically, she did not have very much grace for me. And I think that that was what I needed to really like understand the gravity of the situation. Yeah. And how much it means to everyone. Yeah.
Colie: I’m sure you fixed it. You’ll never make that mistake again.
Jess: Oh no, never
Colie: like, oh, no. I mean, it’s funny when people, because I, I sometimes shoot on two cards. Like, I think the importance to me is, how important, like I would never not shoot double cards or double cameras at like a birth.
Like one of the things that I’ve always told people is I’ve always almost shot equally on two cameras. Like depending on the video, depending on what lens it was that I used. So if a card, even if I was single, shooting a card. And it was on one camera and I lost that card, I would still have everything else that I shot on the other camera, which would be like the whole session.
It might just be from different angles, but like I was shooting pretty equally on two. But now that I’ve gone down to like one camera, I do double cards copying the whole time. The thing that got me though, as a filmmaker, it’s different with different, camera companies, but Nikon will not allow you. To copy video to both cards.
So I’ve always been of the, well, do I really need two cards? Because if the main one gets corrupted, I would’ve lost all the video that I shot for that session anyways because it doesn’t copy. But again, like I’ve always been like a almost equal shooter, two, two of the same bodies. But now that I’ve got a Z nine, like I shoot almost the entire session on that.
So I have been a lot more careful about making sure that it’s two cards and they’re copying and, you know, all that good stuff.
Jess: Yes.
Colie: I had a really horrible, experience. Not like you card didn’t get corrected, but I was shooting on a Nikon D seven 50 and for any Nikon users out there, you probably know what I’m gonna say next.
There is a quality button on the camera and it’s right next to the i s o button. So my finger hit quality instead of I s o. And I switched it from large, raw to small jpeg
Jess: No.
Colie: an entire session. And it was a newborn session. It wasn’t a birth, it wasn’t a fresh 48, but it was an in-home newborn session. And in general, I would’ve been fine, but the mom had fake eyelashes and so with the small jpeg and the compression, it just looked like black blobs on her face.
So I did have to tell her. I did have to apologize. I did have to go to her house and reshoot the session, which, I mean, luckily I was able to do it cuz I noticed within like a few days. But, that was pretty traumatic. And it’s funny because my husband constantly reminds me before I leave the house, are your settings good?
Jess: I love that.
Colie: And I tell him, I’m like, no, my cameras now don’t have quality buttons. Like I don’t have to. I mean, Nikon finally got rid of them on the new bodies, but. I mean, I was devastated. I did that one time before, but I noticed during the session, like I changed it and I was like, oh, that’s weird. And then I realized and I changed it back.
I had only taken photos for like 15 minutes before I noticed. But yeah, so I just wanted to like it in solidarity. Jess, I’ve had something like that happen too.
Jess: Yes. And we all have those one time things that you learn the hard way and you’re like, cool. Got got my lesson.
Colie: Got that outta the way. helped me have better systems. All right, Jess, if people listening wanna find out more about you, or perhaps they’re planning a vacation to Maui and want some family photos, tell them where they can find you on the internet.
Jess: Instagram at Maui Family Photo and my website’s just Maui family.photography.
Colie: Jess, thank you so much for sharing all of your insights on the
Jess: Thank you, Colie.
Colie: good episode.
Jess: It was so fun. You’re the best.
Colie: All right, everyone. That’s it for this episode. See you next time.
