The Role of Hiring in the Journey to Becoming a CEO with Angelica Pompy

Have you grown and scaled your business by hiring contractors or employees? In today’s episode, Angelica Pompy joins us to share how she claims the role of CEO in her business, what her journey of hiring has looked like, and how she’s growing her brand.

The Business-First Creatives Podcast is brought to you by CRM and Dubsado expert Colie James. Join Colie each week as she discusses how to build a business that brings you joy and a paycheck! From business advice with fellow entrepreneurs to sharing automation tips and tricks, Colie and her guests are sharing industry trends and resources, along with a little bit of sarcasm.

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Today’s episode is brought to you by my Love Your Leads private audio training! Are you providing an experience for your leads that sets an expectation on when they’ll hear from you, provides them with tools that will help them easily say yes and book you, while also making them feel seen and heard? In my private audio training, you’ll learn how to love your leads and get more booked clients through an automated booking process.

Guest Bio:

Angelica Pompy is the owner and lead Photographer at Pompy Portraits in Jacksonville, FL. At Pompy Portraits, we specialize in maternity and boudoir photography. Our motto is to empower women in every season of their life. Angelica’s photography career started in high school as a portrait studio photographer to a full-time photographer in 2019. Within two years as a full-time photographer, she has scaled her business to six figures by building a strong online community and branding presence. Angelica is a huge advocate for Community over Competition because she believes we can all win! Helping photographers build confidence to show up and serve their clients while growing their business is her jam!

Here are the highlights…

[0:00] Love your leads

[0:58] Meet Angelica

[5:30] Making Your First Hire

[8:24] Training Your Hires

[11:36] Finding Her Niche

[15:43] Before and After Hiring + Niching

[17:28] Biggest Marketing Activity for Her Business

[17:52] Preparing to Open a Studio

[23:40] The Process of Opening a Studio

[25:45] Goal for the Studio

[27:05] Inquiry Referrers

[29:53] 2023 Goal

[31:02] Editing and Outsourcing

[33:40] Biggest Fuck Up

Are you providing an experience for your leads that sets an expectation on when they’ll hear from you, and provides them with tools that will help them easily say yes and book you, while also making them feel seen and heard? Today’s episode is brought to you by my Love Your Leads private audio training, where you’ll learn how to love your leads and get more booked clients through an automated booking process.

Connect with Angelica

angelicapompy.com
instagram.com/angelicapompy
youtube.com/@angelicapompy

Review the Transcript

Colie: Hello, hello and welcome back to the Business First Creatives podcast. Today I am chatting with my new good friend, Angelica. She hit me up in the dms and Instagram and we have been chatting and I was like, girl, you need to come on my podcast and talk about all the things that you are doing. So Angelica, good morning and welcome to the podcast.

Angelica: Hello. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to talk about us and like what you’re doing. I’ve just been following you for so long and I’m like, your energy, we’re like there together. I’m like, yes.

Colie: Aw, you’re so sweet. And guys looking at Angelica, if you’re not looking, you sh really should come on camera cuz she’s gorgeous, but I feel like she’s the opposite of me. You guys know how I talk about, I go to all my sessions with like my hair in a bun and absolutely no w no makeup wearing pajamas.

Angelica is the opposite. She is totally giving me the vibes of everything that she gives her clients in their women’s portrait sessions. So, Angelica, tell us where you’re located and who you serve.

Angelica: Yes, absolutely. So I am a boudoir maternity photographer and my brand is around women empowerment. So photographing women in every season of their life. My studio is located in Jacksonville, Florida. I’m a native of the city, so born and raised here. And yeah, it’s been magic. I’ve had my studio, it’s coming up actually this month is a year.

Um, and

Colie: yeah.

Angelica: May 5th was my first session in the studio. So one year anniversary here.

Colie: So we are totally gonna talk about your studio, but before we get there, let’s talk about your journey a little bit, because I found the timeline that was available on your website. Absolutely fascinating. So tell me how you got started in photography, and then when did you go full-time in your business?

Angelica: Yeah, absolutely. So I started doing photography in high school. I actually worked at my local senior portrait photography studio here. And I started there when I was 17, and I did like the one-on-one, what they call like elite portrait photographer. So it was me and the client. And I started that and I loved it, and I was like, Ooh, this could definitely be a thing.

Went to college, and I just kept it in my back pocket as like, Side gig money. And then in 2018, my husband and I were planning our wedding and I was like, okay, I’m gonna rebrand my business. And so Pompy is actually my husband’s last name, and he’s like, wait, you’re gonna make a business around my, my last name?

I’m like, yeah, we’re about to get married. Everything’s fine. Like, don’t worry. So that’s where Pompy Portraits came about. And yeah, so I rebranded in 2018 and then really in 2021, I niche down around women portraiture, specifically boudoir maternity. And I went full-time in 2019, just before the pandemic.

And I know like it was, it seemed very scary, but that for that time for me, my business. Exploded. That’s when I had my first hire for a virtual assistant. I started hiring, outsourcing, like projects and things. So since then it’s been up and my husband actually joined me full-time last summer,

Colie: Oh.

Angelica: his one year anniversary.

Colie: That is awesome. So first of all, just in case you don’t know this, my name is not actually Colie James. That is my fake made up business name, and James is my husband’s name. So I agree with you. I mean, I couldn’t use my real name. My real name is very popular. There are no URLs available. And so when I started

Angelica: Mm.

Colie: 10 years ago, I was like, what can I name my business?

I was gonna do Chloe Reese Photography, which is my daughter’s name. And at that time everybody was like, no, you can’t name a business after your child. And I was like, why? And they’re like, well, what happens when you have another child? I said, yeah, we’re not, we’re not having more kids. And I mean, I didn’t wanna go into details about all of the struggles and infertility and all this, but I was like, yeah, we’re, we’re not having any more kids.

They’re like, but you might. I’m like, no, but we really won’t.

Angelica: Yeah.

Colie: I did take their advice and I named my business Colie James. And so it does get a little confusing, cuz of course everyone thinks that is my real name and it is not, but, I totally get building a business and using your husband’s name as part of it, but Okay.

So I mean, you threw a lot at me, Angelica. So let’s start with the outsourcing, because this is something that I have started to ask everyone who’s on the podcast. So you said that you hired a virtual assistant and then you did some other hires. So did you have anyone working with you inside your business besides your husband before you went full-time?

Angelica: No, it was just me. I was doing all the things.

Colie: the things all the time. So your business exploded and you went full-time and those went hand in hand and your first hire was a virtual assistant. Do you remember what kinds of things you were asking her to do at that point?

And if you don’t mind sharing, what was it that you were outlaying in terms of a cost either per hour or per month, or just like a percentage of what you were grossing? Like I’m always interested in hearing those kinds of details. If you can recall.

Angelica: Yeah, absolutely. So I actually had three virtual assistants before I landed my third person, and she worked for me for two and a half years. The first one, I at fir honestly, I didn’t know what I was hiring for. I was like, what? Am I even looking for? I think these are the things I need. I’m not sure like what characteristics or what, like background.

So the first one didn’t have shed the personality, but the skillset wasn’t there. The second person was, the skillset was there, but the personality is just like, It’s a big reflection of my business and I didn’t think like, oh, that’s not a big deal. I don’t need that in the business. They’re back in anyways.

No, definitely. Just, yeah, I was like, no, we have to be on the same accord and that wasn’t gonna work. And then my third hire was a. When the first two were hourly, but then I started researching and I was like, okay, virtual assistants do like this monthly retainer situation, so let me explore more. And so my third hire was an agency, success beyond the Lens.

They were absolutely incredible. They helped my business grow and their team was just like always on it. And they helped me really identify what I needed on a day-to-day. What I thought I needed wasn’t really the issue. I was like, okay, wait, I actually need this. So they helped me find you that, and really, it just grew from there.

And so now I’ve pivoted into an in-person role. And so it’s kind of like half studio manager, half you know, you know, assistant for the studio for my clients, all the things. So, it’s nice to have someone in house to help me with all the things and to be here cause I have a lot of projects and speaking engagements and things like that.

So they’re like my sidekick for sure.

Colie: Yeah, that’s excellent. And the funny thing is, I mean, now I know I should start asking people, well, did you do an individual hire or did you do an agency hire? Because technically my virtual assistant who I talked about the hiring process with her in episode 25, I’ll link it in the show notes. Sarah owns an agency, and so I keep on saying, I mean, I think I got really lucky because she’s my first hire and I, I refuse to let her go.

Like I know, I know fellow photographers that have, you know, inquired with her and all this, and I’m like, okay, Sarah, like these people have my permission to hire you. But like, you’re still mine.

Angelica: Yeah.

Colie: I mean, you’re still. You’re still mine. But I wonder if my experience in hiring a virtual assistant would’ve been different if I had started with one person because I did go into that hiring process with what I thought was a clear vision of the things that she could help me with.

And now she’s doing totally different things, which is great cuz she has an amazing skillset. But I do think that. When someone goes to hire a virtual assistant, they should keep in mind what you think you need help with. May not be what will actually serve you in the long term. And so you should just be prepared for that shift in what you’re actually assigning the person that you hire.

Angelica: Oh yeah, absolutely. So I actually just hired a marketing person for my team. And it’s someone here locally. But in the lieu of trying to find somebody, I talked to a couple agencies as well, and one of the agencies, they really just told me like, Hey, I’m gonna be straight up. You need somebody in house with the amount of workload you have between your three businesses, and like what you and your husband are doing and, you know, we can help onboard them, bring their job description.

So I ended up hiring the agency to train my new marketing person. So I’m just like learning with her. I’m like, okay, we have training, you know, coming up this week. I can’t wait. Yay. I don’t have to do the training cuz I know it, I know the marking things, but. To say that I’m doing it properly or like how I can articulate it for her to understand is not my jam.

So I’ve learned from that experience of the va, like, just hire the professionals, let them take care of it. Less room for error. And yeah, I’m here for it.

Colie: And that is totally a thing. Listeners, just in case you don’t know that there are hiring experts where you can hire someone, you can tell them all about your business, tell them the bottlenecks, tell them what you’re struggling with. They will help you decide the perfect hire for you and help you write the job description.

Some of them will even conduct the introductory interviews and only forward to you. Like the final three candidates that they think would really work for your business so that you can do a final interview. So those people exist. So when you are ready, like if you don’t know what you need to hire for, that is definitely something that you should look into.

Angelica: Yeah, absolutely. It was, I’m, I’m just like, yep, sign me up cuz I don’t have time. I’m doing education, I’m still shooting clients, like I travel a lot. So I was like, this is one less thing I have to worry about. It was the best thing. And I, and I was very grateful that they made that suggestion. Everybody else was just trying to, you know, sell me their product or service.

But she was very transparent, honest, and I was like, wow, I really appreciate that.

Colie: I mean, that’s definitely a business value that I value. I like it when people, because you know, sometimes I get people that are like, Hey, Colie, I really wanna hire you. And I take a peek at third Dubsado account and I’m like, you don’t need me. Like you don’t need a full setup. Like I could make some suggestions and if you want me to do them, you could hire me on like an hourly basis.

But like if I don’t need to set up your whole system, I’m not gonna get you to pay me the money just to do it. I mean, I want you to feel like you’ve gotten value out of what I do. So it’s definitely awesome when you can find people like that, that kind of steer you in the right direction.

Angelica: Yes. Yes, absolutely.

Colie: So, something else, Angelica, that you touched on was your focus on empowering women.

And I think that’s one of the things that, you know, after you dropped into my dms on Instagram, I was like, oh my gosh, like she makes me wanna take off my clothes and get portraits. I, I would probably never do it, but. Your photos did really work. So you know what you’re showing is really working. But how did you come to focus on those kinds of sessions?

Like empowering women? Because I will say, Like, I wouldn’t necessarily think that someone would focus on like boudoir and maternity, but the way that you phrased it earlier, it makes so much more sense. But I mean, you really are about women and making them feel good in whatever season of life they’re currently in.

So what else did you try before you focused on these kinds of sessions?

Angelica: Hmm. So I did it all. I did senior portraiture for a while. I did weddings, weddings for eight years. And I did real estate for a quick second. I was like, I need some humans to smile at me cuz these pillows ain’t smiling back. I did some branding, photo shoots and things like that. And then I was doing newborn, but I recently just took off that service this year.

Cuz we were just starting to do some family planning and it’s gonna need a lot of my time. So, and newborns come when they come, so I needed a little bit more structure. So as of right now, that’s kind of on pause, but, still keeping the maternity aspect of it and the bir. And so I really just saw that there was a gap specifically in my community for women to be served, and feeling like a pampering experience for photography.

So, most of my women that come to the studio, they’re like, ah, I’m here. All right, you need a drink. You need a snack, you know, you know, whatever you want. Kick up your feet, you’re gonna get your hair and makeup done. Truly a pampering experience. I have a client closet, for my maternity mamas. I don’t provide lingerie for boudoir, just for sanitary purposes.

But that is part of the experience for them is to go shopping for themselves because I don’t know about, you know, you, but I don’t go shopping a lot. For myself. So like what I do is like, it has to be for a special occasion or something like that. So it really gets them to kind of go outta their comfort zone and go try on things, you know?

So that’s part of the experience on purpose. And so, yeah, I just really wanted women to feel good. I feel like as women, we’re always serving, serving, serving others, and this is really a time for us to just like, sit back and just be one with yourself. And that’s, that’s pretty, pretty well, like when you feel that there’s just, it’s a good feeling.

Colie: You know, Angelica, I’ve never really considered that. That’s what I do for mothers when I come into their house. I mean, Don’t get me wrong. I wanna take pictures of you guys changing diapers and feeding the baby, but like once I’ve gotten that done, like the baby needs, another diaper changed. Oh, I come and swoop that baby in and change their diaper and hug ’em and swaddle ’em and rock ’em when they’re crying.

I mean, that’s one of the best parts I think of my job. And I didn’t ever really consider that when I’m doing that. That’s a point in time where mom is not doing that and so she can just sit and relax on the couch and sometimes I have a baby on my left hand and I’m still shooting with my right hand while mom is sitting on the couch enjoying her coffee.

But no, it’s definitely a pampering experience and so I do think that that’s like a nice transition because I can see you totally getting good lifetime client value. If you shoot someone’s boudoir, you know, before or after they get married and then they get pregnant and you shoot their maternity.

And then later when they’re feeling like they wanna be sexy again and get another

Angelica: Mm-hmm.

Colie: you can shoot them then. I mean that’s, that’s a nice way to build up your business.

Angelica: Yeah, and I actually offer many sessions just twice a year in the spring and in the winter. The winter is usually like holiday themed and typically those sell out just for my past clients so I can continue to serve them, um, with their families.

Colie: Ugh. That’s amazing. Okay, so we’ve talked about, you know, your timeline of going full-time. We’ve talked about some of the hires that you’ve done. I understand you have a team of six. Now, does that include your husband or no.

Angelica: Yes, he’s a cfo. He’s all the numbers. I am like you figure out what do we need to do today. You know what’s on the agenda for this month

Colie: That is

Angelica: the numbers?

Colie: So,

Angelica: Yep.

Colie: Let’s talk about to you niche down and you did some hiring, like what did your business look like, like before and after? Like, not specific revenue, but like do you have any idea of how much you grew as you made those kinds of investments and you made those kinds of marketing decisions to only focus on the one ideal client versus doing all of the different kinds of sessions, which is what we see a lot of photographers doing now.

A lot of people think. That if they offer more stuff, then they’ll get more clients. And that’s not typically what happens, because then people land on your website and they’re just really confused as to what they can expect to get from you. So how did that look in your business? Like before when you were just a one woman show and then after.

Angelica: Yeah. Oh, that’s a, that’s a great question because I really didn’t understand the value of niching down until I actually did it. It was like a light bulb moment. I was like, why did I wait so long? My inquiries quadrupled first and foremost. I was just like, I’m known in my area now for that, and I have now clients traveling two, three hours to come for my services. As far as revenue’s concerned, I have tripled my revenue since 2019. And it has been crazy and I didn’t have the proper like systems and stuff when I first started in 2019 or when I was full-time. But once I hired virtual assistant, we got everything to par and now I have, you know, compare numbers and numbers month to month.

Like we hit six figures this year within two and a half months. Of the year. So it was just like, what we can do this. So between my husband, my husband’s a videographer for weddings and then I do the portraiture. And then we also have a photo booth business, as well he has under his wing.

And then my education as well.

Colie: Yeah. I mean, Angelica, you are doing a lot. You are doing a lot, you, I will say, I think of everyone that I’ve interviewed for this podcast thus far. With a very few exceptions. You definitely have the largest team of anyone that I have interviewed yet. And I do think that, you know, you’re like, wow, we hit six figures within the two and a half, within the first two and a half months of the year.

I mean, that gives you a lot of space to grow even more, as you continue. So where, I mean, because you’re doing a lot and so you said the multiple . Businesses, so I just wanna focus on your business right now. What is your biggest marketing activity that you would say?

Angelica: So right now it’s social media. I, I grew like my first two years of my business just on Instagram. Like I picked a, I picked a platform and I went say Balls to the wall. I was like doing all the things on Instagram that you can think of. And I still use Instagram a lot. I did invest in SEO in 2022 of last year.

And that has brought a lot of, like, the ROI for that has been amazing. So, and that was one of the reasons why I pivoted to getting a studio because it’s different when you have a referral from a family friend that’s like, Hey, I know this, this, and that. But when you have, I call ’em Googlers. When you have a Googler come to your house and you know nothing about them.

I used to do workout at my home for three years. Where my, we are now my office, this is where I getting ready area, my guest bedroom is where I shot. And so when I started seeing those numbers increase from Googlers, I was like, okay, it’s time to take this to another space. My privacy is important, you know, separate home and work is important.

So that boundary was getting very like, fine line. I was like, okay, it’s time to separate the things. And so that’s when the kind of studio came to fruition. I was like, okay, I really need to find this space cause I’m getting. Strangers in my house, you know it’s not safe.

Colie: That would be a no-go for me. Like, I don’t, I don’t know how people do that. I mean, I know that there’s a lot of newborn photographers who do post and they invite people into like, you know, their studios that are attached to their homes, and I’m just like,

Angelica: Mm-hmm.

Colie: I, I couldn’t do that. Nope.

I, I recently switched to Convert Kit. And a couple people thought that I moved to Seattle because I left their address at the bottom because you can do that just so that everyone knows. Convert Kit will allow you to do that. You have to check a little box and like initial something. But so I did that because I’m in my new house and technically I didn’t want anybody to, you know, Google me and figure out where I was and all that good stuff, but, I can totally see you doing that as like a space thing, but also I feel like the studio is what allowed you to really explode and take on more sessions, because otherwise, you know, you’re trying to make sure that people are coming to your house certain days of the week, you’re trying to make sure that your space is clean, like you constantly feel like your house has to be client ready, versus doing it at a studio just probably opened up all of the possibilities of when you could book.

Angelica: Yes, absolutely. Like I have two dogs and some people are dog lovers, others aren’t. But I’m like spic and span, and I have an open floor plan. So I, do IPS with my clients, so in-person sales and that portion of it would be in my living room. So you see my kitchen, it was just like always every day.

But now I have a space where I can leave work at work and then come home and be home present with my family. And so when I had that space, like people were like, what is this? Or who, you know, who’s the new photographer in the block? I’m like, I’ve been around for a couple years, but this is my new studio.

So that’s been cool.

Colie: So let’s just briefly talk about the whole opening of a studio, because I know there are some people in the listening audience that might want to consider opening a studio, but they’re like, first of all, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what I should expect for cost, like the timeline. So how did you find your studio space that you’re in now?

Angelica: So I was a stalker. I’m not gonna lie. So there’s a couple websites like out there that you can use that has for like commercial real estate. But I will never forget one of my colleagues, up north, she’s a boudoir photographer. She’s like, Just go roam the areas you wanna be in. So there’s like a specific area, Riverside area here in Jacksonville.

I was like, I really wanna be over here. Like the architecture. I wanted exposed brick, like there was a specific look I wanted. And I wanted a brick and mortar because I wanted to be able to serve all walks of life. Being wheelchair accessible was very important for me. So I wanted to make sure I found a space that was.

No, checked all the boxes, so I just drove around, drove around. I found the studio like I saw, I saw this place vacant. Didn’t have a sign or anything, so I just parked and I talked to a neighbor. They’re like, oh, it’s being leased, but they haven’t made moves on it. I was like, okay, no worries. Come back a couple weeks later, still vacant.

No movement, and it’s just like open windows. I’m like, Hmm. Gonna go talk to another neighbor, another neighbor’s like, ah, I dunno if they’re doing anything else with that, but this is a phone number I have. Anyways, I ended up piecing all the information, found the landlord, got a phone number, found the person that was leasing it on Instagram.

I sent them a message in December. Of 2021 and I was just like, Hey, you know, I saw that you were leasing this space. If you are still, if you’re still using it or you don’t have any changes, let me know. I got a message back in February of 2022 and I was just like, oh my God, you DM me back. No way. And he’s like, actually, I’m not gonna move forward with the, what the plans were.

I’m gonna give you a call. Literally the next day I got a call from him and the landlord. That was a Friday. By Monday I had the lease in my hand. I was like, whoa. And it was kinda scary cause I was like, this is a big investment. But I, it was something that I’d been wanting to do. It’s kind of been on my vision board in 2021.

Just, you know, we practice basically to make sure that this wasn’t gonna be a big debt in our business, is putting that rent money or lease money aside every month. And so all the money that we accumulated for that pretend rent that we had, we used that to. Purchase all the furniture, do all of the buildouts and things like that.

So it wasn’t a big hit financially for us. And I would definitely recommend that for anybody that wants or thinking about a studio, put that budget in your monthly expenses and pretend you have it. And then that way when it does come, it’s not a shocker. And I’m like, oh my God. Two grand later a month. Ah, so scary.

It sounds very scary.

Colie: I mean, Angelica, that all sounds great. Number one, you don’t let grass grow anywhere. Good for you girl. Number two, putting that money aside every month. It sounds like you might have a financial husband. I’m just saying. I mean, he seems like he’s a good fit for your business. So what was the timeline?

So you ended up getting the studio in February of 2022. What was the timeline for your build out and at the end of the day, like furniture, Renovations, all of that. How much would you say you put into your business in order to get the studio ready to use?

Angelica: Yeah, so our construction started, we signed the lease on February 20. In 2021, the 26th and the actual renovations only took about six weeks cuz our contractors were on it. They were like, Hey, you, um, we’re here to ready to paint. I’m like, wait, I don’t even know the paints watches. So some of the delay was marked partially my fault was like, wait, I have an idea.

Um, but I did have everything sketched out and mapped out. Where I wanted the wall to be. We have a kitchen area rebuilding, um, the bathrooms. So the build out itself only took six weeks. And then as far as purchasing the furniture, I had a very specific concept in mind. I wanted to keep it kind of modern and contemporary kind of look.

So piecing and finding the pieces for the studio furniture wise took a little longer. Um, but my first client was Cinco de Mayo last year. She came from Atlanta and I was like, I have to just get this as much as I can to par. So obviously when I did her first shoot is not what it is today, but it was enough to like, You know, do the shoe and make it happen.

And I just always told myself like, I worked in a 10 by 12 room for three years. I can make magic at 1100 square feet. Like, it’s, it’s gonna be fine. So total, I would say around $25,000. And the reason why it’s a little higher is cause we, I like, again, I had a very specific look in mine. I got epoxy floors done.

I had like, the finishes needed to be gold and ju I’m just a fancy on the fancy side. So I’m like, I have look

Colie: You’re a little bougie. Angelica, come on now. You can. You can say that word. It’s okay.

Angelica: things, but, but you could definitely do it on the lower end depending on like what your style and, you know, vibe is. So yeah, that was, that was a big investment. But again, like I said, we. Put all the money aside, so it was just like, we’re just cutting the check. All right. What’s next?

Colie: Mm-hmm. Now, what is your goal? Because I know that you use your studio for yourself. You’ve recently hired an associate, which we’re gonna talk about, but I also know that you rent the studio. And so is your main goal with the studio to be able to pay the lease with the rental income? And if so, how long did it take you to get to that point?

Angelica: Yeah, so honestly it’s all about marketing, especially in my area. There’s a couple studio rentals. But my specific look and vibe is very unique. Like I have a clot tub in my area, a clot tub. I have exposed brick. I have different paper and textured backdrops. So marketing was definitely key to that.

I would say within two months of launching it, that’s when I started seeing the rentals come in. Yeah, so I was like on it marketing, marketing, marketing. I’m like, Instagram, Instagram. And I, again, just, I stick to one platform and then I just let it push to Facebook. But yeah, just like about two months.

And then after that I was like, okay, this is renting way more. This is awesome. I’m like, okay, now I need to start hiring a team to help me leverage my own business. And so right now the rentals are Saturday, Sundays and Mondays. And that’s cuz we don’t shoot those days in the studio.

Colie: Oh, so you get a three day weekend. Look at you.

Angelica: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Colie: I mean, all of this is amazing. We’re gonna take one step back and I wanna talk about what you said about Instagram, starting your business, and then you invested in the SEO and you started to see a return. You do you track where your incoming leads come from,

Angelica: Yes.

Colie: and so what’s the current percentage of people who are identifying themselves, either coming from Instagram or from Google?

Angelica: So right now Google is about 22%, and then Instagram is about 60 ish percent. The remainder is referrals and Facebook, Facebook is the smallest percentage. And I’m still kind of tipping my toes into Pinterest world. So that’s a very small percentage, but I started getting leads there this month. I’m like, oh.

So excited. Well, last month, so I was like, yes. But yeah, majority definitely still Instagram just because I’m actively on there. And I’ve grown my following from literally zero to nothing, just like authentically being myself and showing my brand. But the Googlers are definitely like, I. That was a fine tuning on my website.

I had to do to make sure I was attracting the right clients and the right price point. Um, and with the help of my SEO guru, she is like, okay, this is what we’re gonna test this month. This is what we’re gonna change. Um, and fine tuning that. It really took us like six months to get that to par for the Googlers to be like, yes, I’m ready.

Sign me up. Um, so it was, it was crazy cuz I was like, I hear about seo but I’m like, is this really a thing? Like how much is this a thing? I’m like, oh hell yeah. So for my education side of things, I’ve hired her to just do all the things on my website. Um, just cuz I don’t have time to play, like, you know, trying to figure it out on my own.

Colie: And I mean, I will say I’ve been on your website, I’ve definitely been following you on Instagram longer, but I do get a sense of who you are, what your business is, and what I can expect if I hire you from both places. So you do come off incredibly authentic on both, and I feel like I get a good vibe of what it is that you.

Offer your clients when they hire you. And so I don’t feel a disconnect because sometimes. When people put more effort into one platform over the other, there is a definite disconnect. And I’m like, but what are you gonna do if they find you on Instagram and they see you like this, and then they go to your website and it looks like it’s from like the 1990s and there’s like none of these great photos that you show on Instagram.

Like it has to be a seamless process. Guys from, if they find you on social media, they inquire with you on the website, they hop into your C R M. All of that needs to show the same amazing personality. And work that they can expect from you if they hire you.

Angelica: Yes, I send gifts. I’m all about gifts. Like there’s a gift of me. Hey guys, like it’s literally of me, and I’m like, it’s all me. So like my personality is spread out through my entire business, like emails, website, you know, responses, all the things.

Colie: So I know you’re expanding your education brand, but like what is one goal that you’re working towards in your photography business for the rest of 2023? Cuz I mean, girl six figure check. Hiring associate check, really making the studio work for you? Check, I mean, like what’s your goal? What are you gonna do for the rest of 2023?

Angelica: so 2023. That’s a good question. So I wanna hire another associate. I wanna have, the associate that I hired is specifically gonna focus on boudoir. And then I wanna hire another associate for a maternity. Another goal is to hire an editor. So right now I do the editing. But I would love to just have somebody in house where they can come in twice a week and, you know, knock out the edits.

That would be a goal of mine. And then for me, I would love to shoot less about two to three weeks. So two, two to three times a week, versus like four or five. And then focusing some of my energy and. Speaking engagements. And my education’s gonna be focused more so around photographers, and creatives.

So I’m excited to see what that’s gonna be. But yeah, growing a team, yeah, team and just having like a oil machine. And my goal is with hiring a team has been really, Wanting people to just love what they do. You know, this is your task, this is what you do. Like the boudoir photographer I hired, I was like, I just want you to just go all out.

When you go shoot these clients, be creative. Like, I don’t want, you have to worry about the editing. I don’t want have to worry about the consultation calls. Like, just go do what you’re good at.

Colie: Okay. I find it very interesting to hear that you are still editing, so let’s talk about that. Angelica, I think this is gonna be the last thing that we do before I ask that question that everybody is waiting for me to ask. So, I find it incredibly interesting that you are still doing your editing, because most photographers, that’s like the low-hanging fruit.

It’s like, oh, you need to take something off your plate. Hire an editor, because editors are a dime a dozen, no offense editors, but I mean, you can try one, if it doesn’t work, you try another one. Like there are just a lot of editors out there. So why have you been holding onto your editing like so tightly in your grasp?

This entire time.

Angelica: so, I use AI to do most of my editing and the amount of time that it takes me to like, Crank it out, it’s like 30 to 45 minutes at most. So when finding a person, the dollar to dollar didn’t make sense. So I just need to do a little bit more research to find who that person will be. But for me, and it’s kind of like relaxing.

So, and I, like I said, I ba bump ’em out really quick.

Colie: Mm-hmm.

Angelica: not a ton of time per se, but it is definitely the next thing that’s gonna be, you know, somebody take over.

Colie: I mean, is it just me though? Like, I mean, granted it takes a really long time to edit and I have editors like that’s

Angelica: Mm-hmm.

Colie: I have lots of stories on the podcast about why I hired an editor, but what I find is that I take more time when the editing is done to export the images and upload the images to the gallery or in your case to get them ready for your i p s session.

And so, I mean, I just feel like even if the person that you hire to be your in-house editor is not actually editing the images, like they’re letting the AI do it, they’re doing the final touches, I feel like you in particular would have a lot of other stuff for that person to do to get the images ready for the I P S session, and then maybe those people can actually end up placing the orders on the back end, and that could take even more time off your plate.

Angelica: Yeah, so that’s something I’ve been kind of tooling around with, like still keeping it personal experience. And like how can we involve somebody else in the IPS portion. The only thing is boudoir is such a personal experience and like, you know, my photographs are gonna be in so many hands, you know, it kind of takes away a little bit from the privacy.

aspect, but just like really fine tuning what that’s gonna look like for the future as my team grows. I definitely wanna stay boutique style. Nothing more than like three photographers of my team. Like I wanna vary hands on and like, you know, care and like practicing all the things that we do here at Pumpy Portraits.

Colie: And you know that personality, cuz that’s a big portion of it, Angelica.

Angelica: Yes.

Colie: as everybody’s probably been waiting for, this is the question that I ask everybody on my podcast, girl, what was your biggest fuck up in your business? What did you learn and how did you grow from it?

Angelica: Hmm. I would say when I hired that first virtual assistant, I was like, I don’t even really know. Like I didn’t, I didn’t do what I needed to do to hire the person properly, and that was probably just out of lack of knowledge. I wasted so much money thinking like, this is the stuff that’s going to move the needle.

And then when we sat back and was like, how much money does this actually bringing us? So it was like nothing. Absolutely freaking nothing. I was like, we wasted all this time. I trained her. I did this, I did that. I’m like, that was like five months of my life. That I could have did something so much more productive and brought so much more revenue, like put in my energy somewhere else.

And I was just like, wow. And that’s when I really sat down and I was, I don’t know, I was listening to a podcast like, write down every single thing you do and what would you move it over? If you could move it over, who could do it? I was like, I’m gonna do that. And that’s when I did the second hire. But that first hire, it was just hard.

Cause I’d never done anything like it. It was already scary cuz I’m bringing somebody into the mix. You know, signing contracts, like I’m pretty sure that first contract wasn’t to par, so, you know, thankfully we left on good terms. No, no hard feelings, but I was like, Ooh, baby, this is not it.

Colie: I mean, guys hiring comes with a lot of stress. I mean, if it doesn’t work out, You have to figure out a way to get rid of them. You now have overhead in your business that you have to pay every single month, even if your income or your revenue or your bookings are down. So I get that. It’s stressful. But if you can do it in the most thoughtful and strategic manner, the return on investment can be incredibly high.

And the funny thing is, I have two people on my team, not including my editors, because my editors only work on like a session by session basis, but on a monthly basis in my, in my business, I have my podcast manager and I have my virtual assistant and my podcast manager. You know, Haylee, love you, love you to death.

But technically this podcast is not a money making adventure yet. So I am outlaying all of this cash to have her edit the podcast, you know, publish the podcast, doing all of these things. And I’m doing it for a long-term investment. But like right now, I’m just, you know, the money’s just going out. There’s nothing coming in.

And whereas with my virtual assistant, I. I would say about half her job is revenue driven and the other half is just, you know, doing things like related to social media and those kinds of things. And so I just want everybody to make sure that you understand the role of the hire. Like if you are giving them something that’s going to actually make money, by all means track that, figure out if you’re getting a return on investment.

But if you are hiring someone in your business to take things off of your plate. That then enables you to do more in your business to make more income. I mean, you’re getting a return on investment even if that hire isn’t specifically the one that’s like making you the actual money. So just be clear, guys, when you hire which one it is.

Angelica: Yeah. And that’s, that’s a great point cuz I hired a team to do all my education stuff. Like I have all the ideas, but I needed somebody to create the freebies, the launches, the email sequence. Like I don’t have time right now to do that, and it’s gonna be in the future, but I’m just like, I’m gonna hire you guys now and get it together for me.

And then when the time comes, we’re just gonna come back and see it come back in tenfold.

Colie: Yeah, I mean, and like right now, you’re not getting a monetary return on investment for that unless people are signing up for your stuff. But you could also think about it in terms of the number of additional followers, the number of additional people being added to your email list. So guys, everything has something that’s trackable.

You just have to figure

Angelica: sure.

Colie: that is.

Angelica: Yes. Yes, absolutely. And I even started doing free monthly workshops here in my community. Um, just talking on different types of subjects and things and. The amount of people that have come out to that. I’m, I was just shocked myself. I’m like, I had 27 people come to the last one. I had 25 people come to the one before that.

So it’s growing and it’s people, half of the people that come, I don’t know anything about, like, they’re completely new to my audience. So it’s been awesome.

Colie: Yeah. And I mean, hey, you have the space to do that inside of

Angelica: Yes, it’s been nice. It’s been nice. I’m just like, oh, studio, I know where it’s happening.

Colie: Yeah. All right guys. Angelica, it’s been a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Where can the listening audience find you? I will have all of it in the show notes, guys, but I like for my guest to say it out loud.

Angelica: Yes, yes. You guys can find me on Instagram, Facebook. I don’t have Twitter yet. I can’t keep up with the time. It’s too much for the kids. Everything is Angelica Pompy. That’s A N G E L I C A P O M P Y. Um, that’s my education platform. And then all my photography items are Pompy portraits. Pompy portraits.

There we go.

Colie: Angelica, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It was a pleasure, everyone. That’s it for this episode. See you next time.