The Pet Photographers' Journal

How to Sell Pet Photography Without Feeling Salesy, with Shelley Janes

Selling feels salesy. Emailing your list feels spammy. Posting your offer twice feels like bothering people. That's what Ina hears from pet photographers over and over, so she asked a sales psychologist about it. Shelley Janes says if you're scared of turning into the pushy person who gave you the ick, that fear is evidence you never will.

In this episode, Ina sits down with Shelley Janes, a sales psychologist with a master's in psychology and 20 years in sales. Shelley was the first sales hire for a Techstars company and then a Y Combinator company in San Francisco, burned out, and now lives outside Amsterdam teaching people how to sell without pressure or manipulation. They talk through pet photography sales from the consult to the ordering appointment: story selling, the money conversation, what to say when a client says it's too expensive, and why your emails only feel spammy when you only email to ask.

Key takeaways:

Sell what a normal day looks like with it. Shelley once sold salad-making robots to food service distributors at conferences. She was told to talk about the specs. Instead she described employees at a company like Google getting a fresh, customised salad that no one had touched, at any hour. For pet photographers, she says, what you're selling is art on their wall forever.

Use a past client's story to take the pressure off. Shelley's favourite way to sell is to talk about another client, like the one who thought she only wanted a few prints and ended up choosing a big piece above her fireplace, and what that cost. It shows you're capable and that people love what you do, and because you're talking about a third person, the listener's defences stay down.

Have the money conversation long before the ordering appointment. Ina's clients see her pricing before they book a consult, and get a video to watch after they book. At the consult she asks where they'd like to display their photos, then tells them most of her clients spend between $1,000 and $3,000. Some clients now pre-purchase before their session. When Ina's first meeting with a client was at the park on the day of the session, her average sale was around $600 to $700. Once she made an in-person consult the only way to book, it went up to $2,800.

Saying your price is reps, not personality. Shelley's advice is to say your price out loud in the mirror 30 or 40 times, until you know your packages the way a barista knows the coffee menu. When a client says it's more than they expected, try "Totally fair. Tell me what you were expecting." Then adjust the scope or offer a payment plan rather than jumping to a discount, because a quick discount tells them you weren't sure about the price either.

Your emails feel spammy when you only email to ask. If you only email when there's a promo, every email is a sales pitch. Email regularly, especially past clients, who Shelley says are the ones who will pay you the most. A pet photographer has their dog's details, so even a birthday email keeps you top of mind, and staying top of mind is what leads to referrals.

Put your call to action where understanding peaks. Shelley says the moment someone understands something is the moment their trust in you peaks, so that's when to invite them to take the next step. That can be early or in the middle of a reel or caption, where people are still watching. And a vague "if you're interested..." reads as a lack of conviction. A clear next step shows them the door exists.

Connect with Shelley:

Instagram: @shelley.janes

Classes and resources: https://stan.store/shelleyajanes

Resources mentioned:

Shelley's Story Selling Masterclass (see her Stan store for the next one): https://stan.store/shelleyajanes

ManyChat: https://manychat.com

Work with me in The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The Consistent Bookings Mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focused on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system, with full support across pricing, sales and mindset.

Apply here → The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajeducation.com/coaching

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

Your Pet Photography About Page: How to Find Your Real Story, with Andrea Shah

When Ina built her first website, her About page said she loved photography and had done darkroom in high school. Copywriter Andrea Shah hears a version of that story from almost every photographer she works with. She wants to hear the one that's actually yours.

In this episode, Ina sits down with Andrea Shah, a US copywriter who writes website copy for wedding photographers and other creative businesses. They talk through pet photography website copy from a copywriter's side: where to find your real story, how to talk about pricing without scaring off the right people, how much to write so Google and AI search can find you, and whether AI should be writing your copy at all.

Key takeaways:

Your reviews already hold your story. Andrea's first move is to reread past reviews and look at why those clients connected with you. In her words, "they will tell you why they love you and why they related to you, and you need to use that to get the next five, ten, or twenty clients like them." No reviews yet? Read the reviews of photographers outside your area, not your direct competitors, and look for the themes.

If you wouldn't say it out loud, it doesn't belong on your website. Andrea's test is simple. Read your copy back, and if you think "I would never say that out loud," cut it. Your website should sound like you do on a Zoom call.

Give people an idea of price, not the whole menu. Most of Andrea's clients don't list one fixed price. They say what the average client spends, or where pricing starts, and they name any session fee or minimum so people who won't pay it don't enquire. The same goes for how you deliver. If you sell artwork rather than digital files, say so clearly, because "the only way they can weed themselves out is if they know."

Write enough for search engines and AI to understand you. Andrea aims for at least 300 to 400 words on every page, and says the first hundred words matter most for tools like Claude and ChatGPT. Keep your business name the same across your website, Google Business Profile and Instagram so AI links them as one business, ask clients to review you on Google, and add new photos to your profile regularly.

Fix your homepage and services page first. If you're writing your own copy before you can hire a copywriter, Andrea would start there rather than the About page, because "the homepage and the services page are where you're making those sales."

Use AI to research, then write your copy yourself. Andrea uses AI to transcribe client interviews and to look at what competitors are doing, not to write. Her reason: "I want to get a sense of who you are, not who Claude thinks you are."

Connect with Andrea:

Website: https://www.andreashah.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreashahcopy

Threads: https://www.threads.com/andreashahcopy

Work with me in The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The Consistent Bookings Mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focused on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system, with full support across pricing, sales and mindset.

Apply here → The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajeducation.com/coaching

Sharon Canovas used to charge $75 for a session with around 40 photos, and it was turning into a very expensive hobby. Today her average sale is around $2,000, and she has booked out spring, summer and autumn in a row. She did it while working full time as a stunt woman, and while recovering from a concussion.

In this episode, Ina sits down with Sharon, a pet photographer in Hamilton, Ontario, who has spent twenty years doing stunts for film and TV. Sharon first came on the podcast in February, after her first fully booked spring. They talk about marketing for pet photographers when your time is not your own, why she raised her prices three times, how she sells photo albums, and what changed when she moved from Ina's marketing workshop into the Mastermind.

Key takeaways:

A planned year keeps your marketing going when you can't. Sharon got a concussion last year, and this year it brought panic attacks, anxiety attacks and having to teach herself Photoshop again. Because she had already planned her marketing for the year, with everything scheduled in HoneyBook and her landing pages done, she could keep going one small step at a time.

Three things a night will move your marketing forward. Sharon sets a marketing goal for the month, and each night she writes down three things she has to do the next day to support it. On set she can be gone fifteen hours a day, so she answers emails and blogs in her lunch hour and photographs dogs on the weekend.

Posting on social media is not marketing. Before the workshop, Sharon would post, hold her breath and hope for the best. She dropped business cards at pet stores, and the only thing that reliably worked was the Pet Expo. Now she runs a variety of marketing, and she is taking half of November off to plan next year.

The clients who value your work won't question your prices. Sharon went from $75 to $250 to $350, and says it got scary. What settled it for her was hiring a pet photographer herself, for close to $1,400. Her average sale is now around $2,000, and she is raising her prices again next year.

Put the album in their hands before you talk about it. The photo album is what Sharon sells most. At every consultation the album is in the client's hands while she talks, and she shows videos of albums she has designed for other clients so they can picture their own. A payment plan helps too: "A lot of people don't wanna put two thousand dollars on their credit card."

The group is where the ideas get better. Sharon brought an idea to the Mastermind: a colour palette to help clients work out what to wear next to their dog's coat. Ina built it in under an hour, and every member now has it. "It's a very lonely business," Sharon says, "and coming up with ideas sometimes it can be very exhausting."

Connect with Sharon:

Website: https://canovasphotography.com

Instagram: @scanovasphotography

Resources mentioned:

Sharon's first episode on The Pet Photographers' Journal, February 2026:

Listen on Captivate

Listen on Spotify

Work with me in The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The Consistent Bookings Mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focused on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system, with full support across pricing, sales and mindset.

Apply here → The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajeducation.com/coaching

In April, Aubri Poon wrote down her dream result: another successful calendar contest, and $10,000 donated to dog rescues. By August, the beer can label contest she ran with a Calgary brewery had raised $87,341 for the Calgary Humane Society. A separate campaign, a birthday giveaway she launched during the Marketing System Workshop, had booked 14 sessions and filled her calendar into October. In this episode, Ina sits down with Aubri, a Calgary dog photographer who went full time in August 2025 after twenty two years as a flight attendant. Before this year, her bookings were few and far between. They walk through both campaigns step by step, and the pet photography marketing structure behind each one, from the entry form to the press release to the email drip campaign. Key takeaways: Start with the ordering appointments you haven't booked. Aubri had clients she had photographed and never brought in to see their photos. Her first win in coaching wasn't a new campaign. It was booking one of those clients in, and they ordered over $2,000 of wall art. A giveaway only works if it is set up for clients who will spend. Aubri says she doesn't believe in giving sessions away, so she put qualifying questions and disclaimers in the entry form to set expectations before anyone entered. Over 25 people entered, she made offers to 17, and 14 booked and confirmed. The sales so far are $2,500, $2,500, $1,500 and $700, with more ordering appointments still to run. You don't need an ad budget to get press. Aubri had never thought of sending a press release. She used Ina's template, sent it to Calgary news stations, and the campaign was covered on Global News. She then worked out which Calgary radio DJs were dog people and messaged them directly, which got her an interview on air. A cause campaign should also bring in bookings. Ina coached her on how to keep her own business visible while the contest ran. Two months after telling Ina she didn't have enough enquiries to need one, Aubri built an email drip campaign with a special offer session, and three people beyond the winners had already contacted her about it, with a week still to go. Your own call recordings show you where you lose sales. Aubri now runs her consultation and ordering appointment recordings through AI to check what she missed, the questions she skipped, and the objections she didn't answer.

Connect with Aubri:

Website: https://www.aubripoon.com

Instagram: @aubri_poon_photography

Resources mentioned:

The Furever Golden Tale beer label contest: https://www.gogophotocontest.com/fourdogsbrewing

Four Dogs Brewing Co.: https://www.fourdogs.ca

The story behind the four dogs: https://www.fourdogs.ca/about-us.html

Aubri on A Woman a Day with Tyler and Danaye: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/962-tyler-danaye-fuzzy-sound-b-122690064/episode/aubri-poon-on-a-woman-a-342224550/

Calgary Humane Society: https://www.calgaryhumane.ca

GoGo Photo Contest

Work with me in The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focusing on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system along with comprehensive support of your business from pricing, sales, and mindset. My marketing templates library is included, press release templates and all, which is exactly where Aubri got hers.

Apply here: The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Kaity Hartley has said the thing most pet photographers think and never say out loud. She wants to be the photographer everybody can afford, because she genuinely believes everyone should be able to have beautiful photos of their dog. She is also a full-time mum with bills to pay, and three families a month at her entry package comes to $1,500. In this live coaching call, Ina works through what that one belief is costing her, and why her pet photography pricing is the only lever she has that does not cost her another weekend.

Kaity runs Koarlie Studios Pet Portraits on the Sunshine Coast, shooting bright, colourful, joyful studio portraits of dogs. She is a certified canine behavioural dog trainer, which is why anxious and reactive dogs do so well with her, and it is the thing almost nobody knows about her. This is a real coaching call, recorded live, with her real numbers and her real goals on the table.

In this episode:

• Why accessible and profitable are not opposites, and what happens to the people you want to serve when the business stops being able to stay open
• The three gaps Ina looks for first: messaging, visibility and conversion
• What Kaity is actually booking now, and the dream she almost talked herself out of saying out loud
• Why more sessions is the wrong goal when your weekends are already spoken for, and what happens to the maths when you raise the average sale instead
• Making the financial decision for your client before they get to make it themselves
• Why raising your prices without raising your positioning is what makes people say you are too expensive
• The client who paid Ina $250 for all the digitals years ago, came back in 2023, and spent $3,000
• Giving people the full pricing before they book, and letting them decide
• What Kaity already knew, and the one thing she actually needed

If you have ever felt guilty about what you charge, this one is for you.

About Kaity

Kaity Hartley is the photographer behind Koarlie Studios Pet Portraits on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Her work is bright, playful and deliberately a little bit different, built for furkids of every type and every temperament. She has worked across the animal industry since 2012, from conservation and education to doggy daycare, behavioural training, rescue and enrichment, and she is a certified canine behavioural dog trainer. She was part of the first beta round of Ina's marketing workshop, and the feedback from that group shaped what the workshop became.

Connect with Kaity

• Koarlie Studios Pet Portraits: https://www.koarliestudiospetportraits.com/
• Kaity on Instagram: @koarliestudios.petportraits

Work with me in The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focusing on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system along with comprehensive support of your business from pricing, sales, and mindset. My marketing templates library is included, press release templates and all, which is exactly where Aubri got hers.

Apply here: The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Two of my clients have been on television recently. Neither of them paid a cent for it. They both sent a press release.

In this episode I'm talking about press releases, which I think is the most underused free marketing available to pet photographers. I'll walk you through what my clients actually did, what it produced, and the part almost everyone skips: being featured doesn't get you booked unless you go and use the coverage afterwards.

I also cover the two things that stop most photographers sending one. Not knowing what to write, and not knowing who to send it to. Both are much smaller problems than they feel.

In this episode

• Why a press release is free advertising, and why most of us never send one
• The fear that actually stops people, and it isn't the writing
• How Aubri's beer can label contest raised $87,341 and got picked up by Global News Calgary
• How Stacey got on Philadelphia TV without having to be the story herself
• Why press buys you authority and credibility, not just visibility
• Being featured is not the same as being booked, and the four places your coverage needs to go
• The three questions that come up every single time I talk about this
• How to find the right journalists, and why that isn't the hard part
• One thing to do this week: find your angle

One thing to try this week

Look at what you've got coming up over the next few months. A campaign, a charity project, an award, a new studio, a collaboration with a local business. Pick one, and write down the angle in a single sentence. What's the reason a journalist would run this, and why now. That's the hard part. The writing is easy once you've got that.

Work with me in The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focusing on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system along with comprehensive support of your business from pricing, sales, and mindset. My marketing templates library is included, press release templates and all, which is exactly where Aubri got hers.

Apply here: The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Links and resources mentioned

My projects

• Barking Beautiful, applications: https://www.inajphotography.com/barking-beautiful-application
• Tails of Canberra Volume 2: https://www.inajphotography.com/tails-of-canberra-volume-2-book-project
• Canberra Paws Calendar Contest: https://www.gogophotocontest.com/canberrapaws2026
• The Sunrise clip, on my Instagram: watch the reel

Aubri Poon

• Aubri Poon Photography: https://www.aubripoon.com/
• The Furever Golden Tale contest page: https://www.gogophotocontest.com/fourdogsbrewing
• Her Global News Calgary feature, via her own LinkedIn post
• Aubri on A Woman a Day with Danaye: listen here

Stacey Sherman

• BarkHop Studio: https://barkhopstudio.com
• Stacey on Positively Philly, PHL17: A Purr-fect Addition to Phoenixville
• The three-way partnership behind it, in MyChesCo
• Calla's Critter Rescue and Maddie's Castle, where Calla's Kitty Kingdom lives

Press I've had from sending a release

• Canberra Times: Picture paw-fect · Perfect pooches · Telling tails
• Canberra Daily: Paw-some opportunity · Ina J Photography
• HerCanberra: Barking Beautiful · Canberra Paws Calendar Contest
• Pet Industry News, People's Choice

Erin Ollila spent years comparing wedding photographers before her own wedding, and she still remembers ruling one out. Everyone in her area loved them. She looked at their website and thought she would probably get in trouble if she did not smile correctly.

In this episode, Ina sits down with conversion copywriter Erin Ollila to talk about pet photography website copy, and why beautiful images are not doing the selling most photographers assume they are. Erin writes websites for service-based businesses and pairs SEO with conversion, and her position is blunt: your site is not a portfolio, it is your marketing team, your sales team and your education team. They get into what is actually missing from most photography websites, whether to put your prices up, how to ask for a testimonial without feeling like a nuisance, and where AI genuinely helps your copy and where it makes you sound like everyone else.

What We Cover

• Why your website is not a portfolio, and the three jobs it should be doing instead
• The answer for anyone thinking "but my photos are better than a beginner's", and why that stops mattering the moment you are compared with another good photographer
• The most common copy mistake on photography websites, over-explaining what is included and under-explaining why you and what happens next
• What Erin found when she researched one local photography market: the site ranking far above the rest was the one with the most of the photographer in it
• Why the line items should be negligible, and what people are actually choosing between
• Confidence has four layers and only one of them is your camera skill
• The honest read on the word "luxury", and the rule if you are going to use it
• Why it is fine to be exclusive, and how repelling opens the door wider for the people you want
• Pain points do not work in photography. Desires do. Erin explains the difference using her own wedding
• The distinction worth the whole episode: you can repel someone without turning them off, and reminding a client their pet has an expiration date is turning them off
• Should you put pricing on your website: why Erin says no detailed menu but yes to pricing clues, and how to set a range that actually means something
• What happens to the client experience when someone books at a price they were not expecting, and why you start from below zero
• A more creative approach to case studies: the client spotlight, and how it does the selling and the SEO at once
• How to ask for testimonials when you feel like you are bothering people, and why the real problem is that clients do not know what to say
• Using AI for your copy without sounding like everyone else, and the work almost nobody wants to do first
• The third option between DIY and done for you that most people do not know exists

One thing to try this week

Look at your website like someone deciding between you and one other photographer whose work is just as good. Not a beginner. Someone genuinely good. If the only difference a reader could name is the number of images included, the words are not doing their job yet.

About Erin

Erin Ollila is a conversion copywriter and SEO specialist who writes websites for service-based businesses. She studied fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction before moving into content marketing in the early 2010s, writing for very large brands, then moved into website copy when she started her own business and found herself surrounded by skilled people who did not know how to write about what they did. She hosts the Talk Copy to Me podcast. Ina put a call out on Threads looking for a copywriter and Erin came recommended by Colie James.

Connect with Erin

• Erin Ollila's website: https://erinollila.com
• Talk Copy to Me podcast: https://erinollila.com/podcast/
• Work with Erin: https://erinollila.com/services/

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The Consistent Bookings Mastermind is a 6 month group coaching program aimed to help you build your repeatable marketing system with implementation support and accountability. Click here to learn more and apply for the mastermind.

Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Michelle Marchant used to be flat out for two months, then drop off to nothing. Leads were never her problem. She had them coming in, she just did not know what to do with them once they landed. Now she has eleven bookings sitting in her calendar for August and September, a three week holiday booked over the top of them, and no stress about either.

In this episode, Ina sits down with Michelle Marchant of Captured Hearts Photography in the Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne. Michelle has been in business for about ten years and has worked with Ina one on one. She shares exactly what changed when she stopped running her marketing on the fly and built a proper pet photography marketing plan, a follow up process for her leads, and full pricing transparency before the session. This is a real look at how consistent bookings actually get built, numbers included.

Key takeaways

Leads were never the bottleneck. Michelle already had a good filtering process and knew which marketing worked. What she did not have was anything that happened after a lead came in. A three email nurture sequence and a consultation script closed that gap.

One question she was not asking in the consult changed the whole conversation. What is your why. Why do you want this, why did you enter the competition. It opens up a real conversation, and it hands her ideas for what to capture, which lifts the sale.

Past coaches had told her not to disclose pricing before a session, and it never sat right with her. "I felt like I was handing over a surprise." She now sends the full pricing list once a client books, gives it earlier on request, and her pre session questionnaire asks whether they have looked at it with the link right there.

Between transparent pricing and a reworked price list with more collections, her average sale moved from around $1,500 to $1,800 up to about $2,200 across the last six months. Clients who tell her they are just going to take the minimum package regularly land between $2,000 and $3,000.

A $250 Facebook ad run over one week for Mother's Day brought in about 80 leads and 10 bookings. That is $25 a booking. May went from her usual four to six sessions up to eleven, and the campaign worked so well she did not need to run the autumn campaign she had planned.

Michelle does not rely on one campaign to book out six months. She runs several across the year, targeting different people, bringing in a few bookings from each. "A campaign can do so well one time. You try it again and it's the opposite."

Her Pets of the Hills calendar fundraiser for a local wildlife shelter raises around $4,000 to $5,000, with Bendigo Bank sponsoring the printing for the third year running. Fundraiser clients arrive thinking they are doing her a favour, so she added a phone consult and an in person studio consultation to shift that. Two of the highest sales she has ever had came through it in the last few weeks, one of them over $4,000.

The first half of this calendar year has already brought in over $60,000 in revenue, against a goal of four sessions a month at a $2,200 to $2,500 average sale.

One thing to try this week

Ask every enquiry why. Why they want this, why they entered. Then use what they tell you to plan what you photograph.

About Michelle

Michelle Marchant is the founder and photographer behind Captured Hearts Photography in the Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne. She picked up a camera in a high school photography class, went on to a Bachelor of Arts, and worked as a camera assistant in the film industry before launching her own portrait business about ten years ago. She photographs families, couples and single pet owners with their pets, works on an in person sales model from her studio, and runs the Pets of the Hills calendar fundraiser for a local wildlife shelter.

Connect with Michelle

Website: https://capturedheartsphotography.com.au/

Facebook: Captured Hearts by Michelle

Instagram: @capturedhearts_bymichelle

Also mentioned in this episode

Global Image Products, where Michelle first saw Ina's work on display

Consistent Bookings Audit

If you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.

Complete the audit here.

The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

The Consistent Bookings Mastermind is a 6 month group coaching program aimed to help you build your repeatable marketing system with implementation support and accountability. Click here to learn more and apply for the mastermind.

Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

For years I did what everyone tells you to do. I posted consistently, I showed up on social media, I made sure my website was SEO optimised. And I was still sitting there waiting for the bookings to come in.

Last year, more than half my bookings came from campaigns I deliberately launched. Book projects, giveaways, being physically present at expos and markets, and the business relationships I built through them. I can track exactly one booking directly to a reel.

That's not an argument against social media. It's an argument about what social media is actually for. In this episode I'm walking through the four passive marketing foundations every pet photographer needs, why they're not optional, and why none of them will fill your calendar in the week you need bookings.

This is Part 2 of a two-parter. Part 1 was the full breakdown of one of my active campaigns, the Facebook ads that turned $688.80 into over $30,000 in sales.

In this episode:

What passive marketing actually is, and the honest reason it works slowly

Why a marketing campaign is smaller than you think, and what makes something a campaign

Your Google Business Profile, and why it matters for AI search now, not just Google

What your website has to say about you, beyond being SEO optimised

Why "I don't want to be spammy" is costing you bookings, and how often I clean my list

The client who booked because a newsletter landed in her inbox at the right moment

What your social media is really for, and why a caption without a call to action gets you nothing

Where my bookings actually came from last year, tracked honestly

Why you can't build a custom audience without passive marketing underneath it

The 24 hours I lost access to Instagram, and what saved me

One thing to try this week: look at your last 90 days of bookings. How many came from something you deliberately launched, and how many came from someone who just happened to find you? That split tells you exactly where to put your effort next.

Work with me in the Marketing System Workshop

The Pet Photography Marketing System Workshop is where you build your own campaign with me, in the room. Three live sessions where we build your ideal client, your messaging, and one campaign planned start to finish, that you run again every season. The next cohort starts 13 August.

Enrol in The Pet Photography Marketing System Workshop here

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.

Join the Skool Community here

✨ Off the Record Segment

Ran a marketing campaign that didn't work and you're not sure why? Send me a voice note or a DM on Instagram and I'll break it down on the show. You can stay anonymous

📲 Connect with me

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit (find your gap in getting consistent bookings): https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

I spent $688.80 on Facebook ads over 13 days. That turned into $33,495 in sales.

I keep hearing that nobody's spending right now, and that giveaways don't work because all they attract is freebie seekers. So in this episode I'm breaking down my National Love Your Pet Day campaign start to finish. What I ran, what it made, and the part I got wrong.

Facebook ads for pet photographers can absolutely work. Mine returned 48.6 times what I put in. But the ads were never the thing that made it work, and I'm honest in here about where mine leaked. 191 leads turned into 13 bookings, which is a 6.8% conversion rate. The same style of campaign in 2024 converted at 25%.

If you've been thinking about running a giveaway or a seasonal campaign and you're not sure it's worth the money, this is the whole thing, numbers included.

In this episode:

• Why I set a booking and revenue goal before I spent a dollar, and where I write it down
• How to pick an anchor event, and why you can invent one if you need to
• The real numbers: $688.80 in ad spend, 191 leads, 13 bookings, $33,495 in sales
• Lead ads versus traffic ads, and why cheaper leads are not always better leads
• Why your ad copy has to call out your ideal client, not just your ad set targeting
• The difference between nurture and follow up, and why most giveaways fail on one of them
• My 6.8% conversion rate against 25% in 2024, and where I think it went wrong
• The follow-up process I did including the afternoon I called 90 people
• Why getting someone into a consultation is the whole game, and what happens once they're there
• How knowing your conversion rate tells you exactly what your next campaign has to generate

One thing to try this week: work out your actual conversion rate from your last campaign, or from your last ninety days. Leads in, bookings out. That one number tells you how many leads your next campaign needs.

Work with me in the Marketing System Workshop

The Pet Photography Marketing System Workshop is where you build your own campaign with me, in the room. Three live sessions where we build your ideal client, your messaging, and one campaign planned start to finish, that you run again every season. The next cohort starts 13 August.

Enrol in The Pet Photography Marketing System Workshop here

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.

Join the Skool Community here

✨ Off the Record Segment

Ran a marketing campaign that didn't work and you're not sure why? Send me a voice note or a DM on Instagram and I'll break it down on the show. You can stay anonymous

📲 Connect with me

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit (find your gap in getting consistent bookings): https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

When someone tells me AI content all sounds the same, I don't argue. I agree, somewhat. Most people are giving AI basic prompts and getting generic AI slop back.

In this episode I'm sharing the difference between AI slop and AI that amplifies your actual voice, and exactly how I use it across my pet photography business and my coaching business with a human-first approach. My brain-dump workflow (one 10 to 20 minute voice note becomes emails, podcast outlines, reels and carousels, in my voice), the litmus test every piece has to pass, my honest answer to "isn't using AI cheating", where I draw my own line (no AI image or video generation), and the client tool I built with Claude Code without knowing how to write a single line of code. Plus what one of my Mastermind clients, Aubri, built for her own studio with no coding experience at all.

Links and resources mentioned

Free live Claude workshop, Thursday 30 July

Bring 3 to 5 samples of your own writing (written by you, not AI) plus your business information. We'll build your slim context file and your Brand Voice DNA together, live, so Claude knows your business and your content sounds like you. Live on Zoom, Thursday 30 July, 10am AEST (Wednesday 29 July, 8pm ET / 5pm PT). Replay available for 72 hours only.

Register here: https://www.inajphotography.com.au/claude-workshop

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, I share practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.

Join here: https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

📲 Connect with me

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

A disappointing ordering appointment usually looks like one of a few things. They don’t show up. They turn up and say, my gosh, this is so expensive, or I thought this included all the digitals. Or you relied on them to book it in, and they ghosted you. It feels like it fell apart on the day. It didn’t. Something was broken earlier in the process, before the session ever happened.

In this episode I’m breaking down why the sale process shouldn’t start at the ordering appointment, what my own client journey looks like so there are no surprises, and a real planning call from this week where I knew exactly what formats I’d be shooting for before the session. Plus the consultation questions that plant the seed, the tells that show you who values artwork, and how I use AI to create the content that does this educating, without letting it write everything for me.

The episode covers:

• Where the sale actually starts (and what your consultation, questionnaire, and nurture sequence are doing in the background)
• What I ask on a planning call that shapes the entire shoot before I pick up my camera
• How to make sure clients arrive at the ordering appointment already thinking about their wall, not being introduced to the idea for the first time
• Where AI fits into building the content that does this education work for you, week after week, without you writing every caption from scratch

One thing to try this week: pull up your consultation questions and check whether any of them get the client imagining the finished photo in their home, not just what they want photographed.

Links and Resources Mentioned:

Free live Claude workshop

On Thursday 30 July (Wednesday 29 July in the US) I’m running a free live workshop where we build a slim context file so Claude knows your business, your pricing and your offers, then your own Brand Voice DNA document, so your content sounds more like you and can educate clients about the artwork long before they book. Live on Zoom, 10am AEST, replay available.

Register here: https://www.inajphotography.com.au/claude-workshop

🎓 The Pet Photography Marketing System Workshop, next cohort starts 13 August

My paid workshop for pet photographers who want a marketing system that brings in consistent bookings, not random ones.

Details and registration: https://www.inajphotography.com.au/the-pet-photography-marketing-system-workshop

💬 Join the Pet Photographers’ Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, I share practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources. It’s also where you’ll hear about the next free training first.

Join here: https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

🐾 Struggling with disappointing ordering appointments?

Ghosting, low sales, clients surprised by pricing. This is something I work on closely with my Mastermind clients, from the client journey to the consultation to the ordering appointment itself.

Learn more: https://www.inajphotography.com.au/mastermind

📲 Connect with me

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Back when I charged around $250 a session, my marketing sounded like every other pet photographer's. Pet photography pricing works differently now, and generic AI content can do the same damage that generic marketing always did: it makes you impossible to tell apart from anyone else.

In this episode I'm breaking down why generic content, including lazy AI-generated content, makes you blend in with the big ocean of photographers, and why that's the real reason you can't raise your prices, not your market, not your niche. I get into what AI slop actually looks like, the anchor line I keep coming back to (using AI isn't the problem, using it lazily is), and how consistent branding and positioning since 2023, not AI, is what actually lets you charge for the artwork instead of the files.

In this episode

• Why generic content leaves price as the only thing left to compare you on
• The mindset issue behind "nobody in my market will pay more"
• What AI slop actually looks like: emojis, short sentences, "this is not X, it's Y," and em dashes everywhere
• Using AI isn't the problem. Using it lazily is.
• How I turn 15 to 20 minutes of voice notes into content with a human-first process, not a copy-paste prompt
• Why consistent branding and positioning, not AI, is what let one of my mastermind clients land a $9,000 sale from a single client
• Why I use AI in my own business, and where my line is
• One thing to try this week

One thing to try this week: read your last five captions or emails back and ask honestly, could any pet photographer have written this? If yes, that's the gap.

Links and Resources Mentioned

Register for the free live Claude workshop, Thursday 30 July: https://www.inajphotography.com.au/claude-workshop

Free Claude workshop

On Thursday 30 July I'm running a free live workshop. We build a slim context file so AI actually knows your real business, then your own Brand Voice DNA, so AI finally writes like you instead of like everyone else. Live on Zoom, 10am AEST (Wednesday 29 July, 8pm ET / 5pm PT), replay up for 72 hours.

Register here: https://www.inajphotography.com.au/claude-workshop

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)

A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, I share practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.

Join here: skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125

📲 Connect with me

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Not long ago, Stacey Sherman's pet photography business still felt like a hobby. It wasn't the real, paying business she wanted, and it frustrated her. A self-described procrastinator who struggled hugely with confidence. Today she's opening her second studio.

In this episode, Ina sits down with Stacey Sherman of BarkHop Studio, a founding member of the Consistent Bookings Mastermind, for an honest client story. Stacey shares what actually shifted for her: how she found the confidence to back herself and negotiate, how she started taking consistent action instead of putting things off, and how she built marketing she can turn on and off, including the community events that now bring her whole town out. If you know the marketing you should be doing to grow your pet photography business but keep putting it off, this one's for you.

Key takeaways

• You don't need more information, you need to see it made real. As a visual learner, what unlocked Stacey was seeing Ina's actual assets, not another abstract course.
• Your community events are marketing. Strut Your Mutt drew 400 people, 200 dogs and 30-plus vendors, and built partnerships that market her for free.
• A campaign doesn't have to be a big scary thing. Build it once, keep the assets, tweak and repeat.
• Confidence is the real product. From imposter syndrome to a second studio, a VA and 19 booked sessions. Her two words: motivation and confidence.
• Turn the marketing tap on and off. A repeatable system lets you switch it on for bookings and pause it when life needs you.

One thing to try this week

Look at the events you're already doing and write down which ones are actually marketing. Get next quarter's one repeatable event onto your calendar now, before you're scrambling to pull it together.

About Stacey

Stacey Sherman is the photographer behind BarkHop Studio, a studio pet photography business she has built over two and a half years. A former family photographer, she found her way to pet work through fostering and rescue, with a second studio on the way. She is a founding member of Ina's Consistent Bookings Mastermind.

Connect with Stacey

Website: http://barkhopstudio.com/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/barkhopstudio

Work with me in the Mastermind

Stacey's story is exactly what the Mastermind is built for. The Consistent Bookings Mastermind is open for enrolment: a group coaching container focused on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system, with full support across pricing, sales and mindset. https://www.inajphotography.com.au/mastermind

Not ready yet? Start with the Free Consistent Bookings Audit: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free)

Join the free community on Skool

✨ Want to Be Coached Live? (Off the Record)

Drop a voice note or DM on Instagram (@inaj.thepetphotoceo), first name or anonymous.

📲 Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo · Email: ina@inajphotography.com · Mentoring & Coaching

If you've ever felt like you're posting and posting and still staring at an empty calendar, this one's for you.

In this episode I'm sharing a small change to the podcast (more solo episodes, and moving to fortnightly), and why that decision is actually the exact lesson I want to talk about: doing more isn't what gets you booked. Doing the right things, on purpose, is.

I break down the difference between passive marketing (your social media, your blog, your SEO) and active marketing (campaigns that actually create a reason to book), and I walk you through a real campaign I'm running in my own studio right now, Dogs of the Season.

I'm also launching a new segment called Off the Record. If there's something you're stuck on, send me an anonymous voice note and I'll coach you through it on air.

In this episode:

• Why posting more often isn't the same as being booked
• Passive vs active marketing, and why you need both
• The Dogs of the Season campaign, start to finish
• How a 12-month marketing calendar lets you plan once and repeat
• Why marketing now is what fills your spring and autumn seasons
• One active campaign to plan this week

Work with me in the mastermind

The mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focusing on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system along with comprehensive support of your business from pricing, sales, and mindset.

Click here for more info: The Consistent Bookings Mastermind

📲 Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Drop me a voice note or DM on instagram for the "Off the Record Segment".

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Have you ever scrolled past a shelter dog and thought "that photo doesn't do them justice"? Adam Goldberg had the same thought, and he did something about it.

Adam is the founder of AGold Photos and the creator of Second Shot, a mission-driven adoption photography programme placing professional photographers inside shelters to give animals a real chance at being seen. What started as weekend volunteering has grown into a network spanning five shelters across the US, with a goal of reaching 50 in the next three years.

In this episode, Adam shares the full story of how Second Shot came to life, how the model actually works, and what he's looking for in photographers who want to get involved.

What We Cover

• How Adam's photography career started inside a shelter and why he never really left
• The transition from shoot-and-burn events to IPS studio and what he learned the hard way
• Why he walked away from private clients to focus solely on shelter photography
• What a Second Shot session looks like from start to finish, including how he photographs up to 50 animals a week
• The three-person system he uses to keep sessions efficient and stress-free for the animals
• How brand sponsorships fund the whole programme so shelters get the work for free
• What he looks for in associate photographers and what the pilot programme involves
• The tools and workflow that make the volume manageable (including AI editing)
• Where Second Shot is headed and how you can apply to be part of it

About Adam Goldberg

Adam Goldberg is a professional pet photographer and the founder of AGold Photos, based in Tampa, Florida. He is also the creator of Second Shot, a programme that partners with animal shelters and brands to fund and produce professional photo sessions for adoptable animals. Adam has been photographing shelter animals for 10 years and has raised over $250,000 for animal charities through his work.

Links and Resources Mentioned

• Apply to be a Second Shot associate photographer: secondshotpet.com
• Adam on Instagram: @agoldphoto
• Adam's email: adam@secondshotpet.com
• Evoto AI editing software: Use Discount Code ADAM15 for 15% off on annual subscription plans and 20% off on 200 credits pay-as-you-go. Sign up using this link https://link.evoto.ai/goldberg

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective

If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.

Inside, Ina shares:

✨ Practical marketing tips

✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts

✨ Free resources to help you grow

Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

✨ Want to Be Coached Live?

Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29

📲 Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer

In one week, it will be a year since I released the very first episode of The Pet Photographers' Journal. I honestly didn't know if I'd still be here doing this. I didn't know if I'd stay consistent. I didn't know if it would matter to anyone.

But here we are. Over 5,000 downloads later, and I get messages from photographers telling me these episodes have genuinely helped their businesses. That means everything.

This episode is a little different. I want to mark the milestone, share some of what's happened in the last twelve months, including some wins from photographers I've worked with, and then get into something practical. Because after a year of working with pet photographers through workshops, one-on-one coaching, and the Consistent Bookings Mastermind, I've seen the same underlying problem show up again and again: inconsistent bookings.

But this problem doesn't always come from the same place. And if you're trying to fix the wrong bottleneck, you'll keep spinning your wheels.

So today I'm walking you through the four bottlenecks I see most often, and how to figure out which one is yours.

A note before we dive in: this episode was recorded during a hard personal time. My dog James was diagnosed with cancer, and stepping back from parts of the business while navigating that has been genuinely tough. I mention it briefly in the episode. Thank you to everyone who reached out with kind messages. It has meant more than I can say.

Resources mentioned:

Take the free Consistent Bookings Audit (takes about 5 minutes, gives you a personalised result) → https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Consistent Bookings Mastermind (six-month small group program) → https://www.inajphotography.com.au/consistent-bookings-mastermind

Ep. 9 — Why Your Bookings Are Inconsistent (And It's Not What You Think) → https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mUVzPbNGALeVcKvGUDKlF

S2 Ep. 6 — From Overwhelmed with Marketing to Fully Booked for Spring with Sharon Canovas → https://open.spotify.com/episode/4LC6bhrtoIgx1RCKXG4IYH

S2 Ep. 13 — From Zero Clients to a $9,000 Sale: Yunet's Pet Photography Story → https://open.spotify.com/episode/5C9OWzfPhdsE8x8x3IuXeY

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective

If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.

Inside, Ina shares:

✨ Practical marketing tips

✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts

✨ Free resources to help you grow

Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

✨ Want to Be Coached Live?

Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29

📲 Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer

When Kirstie McConnell found out she was moving back to Australia after six years in Italy, she had six months to prepare. By the time she landed in Melbourne, a city where she knew almost no one professionally, she had 26 sessions already booked. Her first three shoots were four days after arriving home.

In this episode, Ina sits down with Kirstie, one of Australia's original pet photographers and co-host of the now-closed Pet Photographers Club podcast, to unpack exactly how she did it. This is a masterclass in knowing your numbers, building a client system that does the educating for you, and making third party marketing work the way it's supposed to.

Key takeaways:

The client should hear about pricing at least 10 times before they ever sit down at the ordering appointment. The voucher says it, the letter says it, the video says it, the questionnaire says it, the phone call confirms it. By the time they are looking at their photos, no one is surprised.

Third party marketing works when it is genuinely a win for the partner. If they are not distributing your vouchers, the problem is not the system. It is that you have not made it worth their while. Kirstie does commercial shoots, provides wall art for store fit-outs, and makes the whole process require zero effort from the partner.

Sending 80 emails got Kirstie 10 partners. If each of those partners generates 20 clients at a $2,600 average, that is $500,000 in revenue from 80 emails. Do the numbers.

The step most photographers skip is the automated funnel between voucher receipt and first phone call. If clients are not converting, this is usually where the leak is.

Know your capacity and protect it. Kirstie caps at 12 sessions a month because she knows what happens to quality, turnaround time, and her personal life when she pushes past it.

Connect with Kirstie:

Instagram: @classicoportraitsaustralia

Websites:

Classico Portraits Australia: classicoportraits.com.au

Classico Portraits Italy: classicoportraits.com

Resources mentioned:

Wistia (free for a small number of videos): wistia.com

Fillout Forms: fillout.com

Airtable: airtable.com

MailerLite: mailerlite.com

Fundy Wall Designer: for superimposing artwork into client home photos

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective

If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.

Inside, Ina shares:

✨ Practical marketing tips

✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts

✨ Free resources to help you grow

Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

✨ Want to Be Coached Live?

Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29

📲 Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer

What if you could run four campaigns a year, spend around $40 to acquire each client, and predict exactly how many sessions you'd fill?

That is exactly what Jason Krieger-Baum has built at Fido Photo in Toronto. He has been photographing pets for over 17 years, and in this episode he pulls back the curtain on the giveaway-based lead generation model that now drives his entire business. No organic social. No cold outreach. Just a system that works.

This conversation gets genuinely specific. We talk numbers, ad structure, booking rates, same-day ordering, and why Jason believes he would start with this model all over again if he were beginning today.

What we cover:

• How Jason went from a high-touch luxury brand to a streamlined, high-volume studio model and why he thinks it is the better business
• The giveaway structure that generates 400 to 450 leads per campaign and converts roughly 35 to 40% of winners into booked clients
• His exact ad spend: $8 to $10 per lead, $4,000 to $5,000 per campaign, run four times a year
• Why he spends $500 a day on ads and does not stress about optimising every dollar
• His same-day ordering appointment process and how he culls 350 images down to 30 in just 15 minutes
• The automated booking workflow he uses in Go High Level so clients book themselves without a single phone call from him
• How he physically mails a printed magazine to every client a month before their session to prepare them for the experience
• Why he does not post on social media at all right now and what he does instead

Key timestamps:

• 02:40 Jason's 17+ years in pet photography and how Toronto shaped his approach
• 05:00 Two brands, one pivot: the difference between Jason KB and Fido Photo
• 09:00 Pricing breakdown including digitals, portraits, wall art, and coffee table books
• 14:00 The booking workflow from lead to session without phone calls
• 17:00 How Jason shoots six sessions a week across three days
• 20:00 Culling 350 photos in 15 minutes and running a same-day ordering session
• 32:00 How the giveaway model actually works, who wins and how many book
• 37:00 The ad spend breakdown and the ROI equation he uses
• 39:00 How he structures his Facebook campaigns: ad sets, audiences, and one ad per set
• 1:20:00 Why he puts zero effort into social media and what he is building instead

Connect with Jason:

Instagram: @fido.foto

Website: https://www.fido-foto.com/

Resources mentioned:

• Go High Level / Difference Maker Revolution (CRM and automation platform Jason uses for his booking workflow)
• ProSelect (slideshow and ordering session software)

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective

If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.

Inside, Ina shares:

✨ Practical marketing tips

✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts

✨ Free resources to help you grow

Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

✨ Want to Be Coached Live?

Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29

📲 Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer

Right now I've got 16 sessions booked for May, ordering appointments to run, editing to get through, and prints to deliver.

And I'm still marketing.

I know that probably sounds like a lot. This episode is about what that actually looks like, and why having a system already in place means marketing doesn't have to stop just because life gets full.

I also share the moment that changed how I think about this entirely. A trip to Iceland, two months of no marketing at all, and coming home to a completely empty January and February. No bookings. No enquiries. Checking my emails constantly and genuinely thinking about applying for other jobs.

That experience is a big part of why I built the repeatable marketing system I use today, and why I created the workshop.

Enrol in The Pet Photography Marketing Systems Workshop

The Pet The Pet Photography Marketing Systems Workshop starts 14 May 2026 7:30 AM AEST (13 May 2026 5:30PM ET). More info about the workshop or to enrol visit:

https://www.inajphotography.com.au/the-pet-photography-marketing-systems-workshop

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective

If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.

Inside, Ina shares:

✨ Practical marketing tips

✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts

✨ Free resources to help you grow

Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.

Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1

✨ Want to Be Coached Live?

Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29

📲 Connect with Ina

Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo

Email: ina@inajphotography.com

Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit

Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer