Kristie LaRochelle of KP Studios joins the Fusion One Lounge this week to give us a snapshot of her life as a commercial photographer & to talk about how exceptional images help her clients build an authentic brand.
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Read the Full Interview Below
Sarah: All right, good morning, everybody. Welcome Biz Talk family. Joining us today, a great guest, we’re going to have a lot of fun, let’s get started!
Glyna: Hey, everybody, good morning! It is a great day in the Fusion One Lounge. I’m Glyna Humm, and around the square here we have our other marketing gurus, Sarah Gilliland and Kelsi Munn. At Fusion One Marketing, we specialize in getting companies more calls and more business. And then we like to highlight those same businesses that we love and grab some of their tips along the way here on Biz Talk. But before we get started, Sarah, if you could pop up our broadcast schedule.
Sarah: Yes, here’s our broadcast schedule, make sure that you subscribe to us. As always, we are live on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Don’t forget about our Marketing Mic on Tuesdays, and our podcast, our awesome podcast, which is Marketing and a Mic. And, please, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube.
Glyna: Wow, we have some fancy stuff this morning. And we have an awesome guest that we are so excited to talk to. This is somebody that every business needs to talk to to get your branding right. We want to introduce our special guest, Kristie LaRochelle, with KP Studios. Good morning, Kristie!
Kristie LaRochelle: Good morning, guys, thanks for having me!
Glyna: Thank you so much for coming on. We go ahead and just dive right in, so why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your family?
Kristie LaRochelle: Well, I am 42 years old, I have been a commercial photographer for almost 20 years; a lot of people don’t believe that.
Glyna: You don’t look it!
Kristie LaRochelle: I know. I have a 10-year-old, almost 11-year-old, son named Ty. I have a five-year-old daughter named Hailey, and we have a puppy dog named Lola that just turned a year old, and today was the first day of school, hallelujah!
Kelsi: It’s been a big morning for you!
Kristie LaRochelle: For sure.
Glyna: Awesome.
Sarah: Yes. I know you’re excited about that. My kids had their first day yesterday, and it is like, wow, a long time coming.
Kristie LaRochelle: I know, for sure. I was just praying and hoping that everything goes well and they just continue to get to go.
Sarah: Yes, absolutely. Okay, let’s dive right in. What type of photography do you specialize in and what are all the types of photo sessions that you offer?
Kristie LaRochelle: I’m a commercial photographer, and a lot of people don’t really know the difference between or what a commercial photographer is. A commercial photographer primarily specializes in businesses and business photography, so we do a lot of corporate headshots, we do lifestyle, things for print ads, and branding campaigns, and we specialize also in the industrial market. We’re not your average photographer, so we don’t do weddings and family portraits and that sort of thing. We are mostly business-to-business and specialize in helping businesses grow their brand with amazing images.
Kelsi: Fantastic. So, you go in and photograph around the client’s office to help them build their brand essentially. Can you touch on why using generic stock photos in that way, on their website, can actually negatively impact their business?
Kristie LaRochelle: Sure. In today’s market, with all the social media, everybody really likes authentic pictures, and stock photography, I mean it has a purpose and can be used in some instances, but when it’s the main focus of your website, especially where people, you’re like, “Hey, welcome to our team,” and that’s nobody in your team, it really brings the credibility of the business down because if you ever go to that office or meet those people in person, you’re like, “Well, these are not the people on your website.” And I think people know, it becomes so generic. There’s so many scam businesses and it’s just hard to trust companies today, that I think if you have a lot of stock photography on your website, then people don’t really know that you’re legitimate and real, and they’re like, “Maybe I’ll just keeping moving to somebody that feels more realistic and like a real company.” And so that’s why we really try to steer away from just filling your site with stock photography because people know it and they’ve seen it so much that they’re just like, “I don’t really know,” it’s just hard to trust.
Sarah: Yeah.
Glyna: I always love the websites that still have the WordPress photos on them, they don’t even go get a stock photo, they don’t even bother.
Kristie LaRochelle: The WordPress does a good job of putting some really pretty pictures up there that really have nothing to do with your business or whatever.
Glyna: That one always cracks me up. Well, your branding is beautiful, I love your colors, I love your logo, and I love your whole look, you’re really ready today for your branding today, aren’t you?
Kristie LaRochelle:
I am. I’ve got my purple going. If anybody knows me, I love purple. I got my purple hair. We always try and show up on-brand.
Glyna: Well, I was going to say you take your branding seriously and that’s a very important piece of your work. I want to go ahead and say that there’s a few people tuning in this morning, so we’ll say hello to them. We’ll say good morning to Melissa Dixon, LaVon Chaney, we have Adam Fanning, Gayle Mason, Steve Johnson, and Cindy Edmunds, so we’ve got some early birds this morning. You do a lot of commercial photography, Kristie, and you’ve talked to us this week that there’s a lot of education that goes along with doing commercial photography with the clients, and the lowest price isn’t always the best, obviously. Tell us a little bit of how you work people through that process.
Kristie LaRochelle: We generally work with a lot of the marketing directors in the businesses, sometimes we work with agencies that are more adept to the process, but a lot of times people are hiring a commercial photographer for the first time, they don’t really understand what’s involved, and we’re not just the show-up-and-push-a-button kind of photographer, we bring in tons of lighting, we bring in assistants, we bring in makeup artists, stylists. I mean it can take us one to two hours to craft one image, and a lot of times people just don’t realize this, they just think you’re going to show up, push a button. So, with all that, there comes an expense, and so sometimes that can take people by surprise at the cost. And so we just really like to try to educate everybody on how we work, what to expect, because we don’t really like there to be any surprises along the way, we make the images surprises, but just keeping people involved. So, we do try to do a lot of education with our clients. And sometimes that’s, hey, get a couple other quotes because sometimes you don’t really realize what a good price is or what an average price of something costs until you’ve priced a couple people. And so we’ll encourage that, we encourage people to look at the quotes and educate them on how to read a quote, a lot of people don’t know what a usage right is or know some of the different terminology on there to know that, well, just because maybe this is less, this one’s actually a whole lot better in the long run or whatever. So, we do a lot of education with our clients, just because we want everybody to be on the same page, and we want to have a great working relationship, and we feel like when we do all that in the beginning, then everything’s just so much easier when it comes down to the actual shoot day.
Glyna: Perfect. I love this. Melissa, and I know you’re going to think this is funny, she goes, “So, how frustrating is it that anyone with a camera,” or, these days, a phone, “thinks they’re a photographer?”
Kristie LaRochelle: There’s a time and place. Sometimes, for social media, and you’re in the midst of something cool and you want to grab it on your cellphone, and these cellphones can do a pretty decent job for some things. But when it comes to being on the frontline and your team and your staff pictures, and putting your best foot forward, your cellphone pictures are probably not the ones that you want to use to represent your main branding. If you’re going to spend a lot of money on a print ad or a social media ad that’s going to run, you probably want a nice professional image because just like your headshot, your look is your first best impression, and if your first impression to somebody is something of low quality or you didn’t take the time, people assume that about your business as well, and so they’re like, “Well, if they’re not going to take the time to put a professional image forward, then maybe they’re not going to take the time to really spend the time they need for whatever service they’re offering with me.” Sometimes people don’t relate that the pictures send negative messages to people, and then they may just say, “Well, maybe we’ll just move on and look for somebody else.”
Glyna: Good point.
Sarah: Yeah. In walking, say, a business owner in the process of selecting a photographer, what do you think would be some key tips or things that they really need, the right questions to ask in choosing the right photographer?
Kristie LaRochelle: First thing I always say is make sure that what you’re looking to do is represented on your photographer’s website. If you’re looking for a great headshot and all you see is wedding pictures, it’s probably not the right fit. That doesn’t mean that photographer can’t do a great headshot, it’s just not what they specialize in. And so the same thing, if you want industrial pictures and you go and all you see is headshots, then that might not be the right photographer. And so a lot of photographers do have different markets that they specialize in, and some people do things that other people don’t do; a lot of architectural photographers don’t shoot people. So, it’s just important to know that you’re hiring the photographer that has the expertise of what you’re looking for, and I think that’s really important. A lot of times, people think people that do pictures with children are your headshot photographers, and a lot of those people are like, “No, I don’t want to do that.” I think it’s just important that, A, you look at the work and make sure that you like what’s represented, and then make sure what your goal is actually represented in their body of work.
Kelsi: Amazing. Can we touch on usage rights? Can you talk about what that is and why it’s so important that your clients are informed about what they’re actually purchasing?
Kristie LaRochelle: A big misconception is “I’ve paid money for this picture, it’s mine, I can do whatever I want with it,” and that is just not true, especially in the commercial market. Usage rights can be unlimited, which means you can use it forever, for anything, with no limits. A lot of times, our headshots are unlimited, like I can’t personally use somebody else’s headshot for anything else, it’s their person. So, usage rights on a headshot is once you’ve shot it, then you can do what you need to with it. But it is important like if that headshot’s going to be on one thousand hundred million billboards, as somebody we all know, all across America, that headshot is going to be worth a lot more money than somebody’s headshot that is just maybe going on a business card or a website or something like that. People are used to movie usages and music; if you buy a CD or a digital download now, you don’t have the right to just use that music however you want, you’re just purchasing a license to listen to it and enjoy it, but if you wanted to use it in a video or something else, you would have to pay more money to do that. Images are considered like that. So, the more exposure an image might have, like if you’re shooting for Nike and Nike’s going to use this image for a national ad campaign for a year, that image would have a greater value than somebody that maybe is just using it locally, like on a Facebook ad for three months. So, it’s important that we get to know the client and know how they’re going to use the images so that we can give them the appropriate usage rights. A lot of times, we can say it’s for a year or it’s for two years, and, in two years, they can come back and say, “Okay, well, we still want to use this,” great, you can relicense the image. So, you don’t have to buy all these rights upfront, you can see where your marketing needs go and then can revisit it in a year. Product photography, people’s products change all the time and, in a year, they may not even offer that product anymore, so they’re like, “We don’t really need these pictures anymore.” So, those are just some of the questions that we ask to try to guide people in the right direction so that they get the appropriate usage.
Glyna: Perfect. The stuff you don’t even think about, and that’s why I would need to hire you, a professional. Like you said, you’ve been doing this for 20 years, so it’s not like you’re a fly-by-night photographer by any means, you’re well-established. So, what do you think are some of the key differences that sets you apart from any other photographer and has contributed to your success all this time?
Kristie LaRochelle: Well, I think, A, that I’m a full-time photographer, this is what I do day in and day out, this is what feeds my family, so I’m very serious about my business. I think timely communication; in this day and age, everybody’s busy and on-the-go, but being able to return emails in a timely … being able to talk on the phone, you wouldn’t realize how many people that just won’t pick up the phone and have a conversation these days.
Glyna: Oh yeah, I would.
Kristie LaRochelle: We can do a lot over message and text messaging and email, but sometimes you just really need to have that in-face person-to-person meeting and really get to know your client and your customer. And so we really like to be present and make sure that we are delivering our images in a timely manner, that we’re professional, we’re always going to send a professional quote so we’re on the same page upfront. I just think we take a lot more steps just to make sure that everybody is involved in the process, knows what’s going on, and we have just strong communication skills. Even though with today’s market, I think sometimes that can be lacking, and people just get frustrated because they can’t get their questions answered or they can’t get their photographer on the phone, they just can’t the communication that they need. And then, on the backend, sometimes people have a lag in delivering the final product and it can take weeks or months or whatever. One thing I hear is, “I could just never get my images from my photographer,” and so we just try to be different from all that and set the expectations. And when we send our quote, you’re going to know that you’re going to have the final images to review in two or three days, and then from your selection date, you’ll have those final images in three to five business days. So, we really specialize in a quick turnaround, based off the job.
Glyna: That’s different than most businesses, not just photographers, setting expectations, and actually coming through with them.
Kristie LaRochelle: When you set that expectation, then people aren’t worried or they don’t have to guess, and they don’t have to spend their time thinking about or worried about what we’re going to do, they’re going to say, “Okay, well, within five days, I know,” so they don’t have to send that extra email or keep following up and waiting for a response, they already know the answer.
Glyna: Perfect. Well, you have some beautiful shots that we’ve looked at. I’m sure, over 20 years, you’ve accumulated a lot of them, but we grabbed just a few to go through. So, we’re going to pop them up one-at-a-time. If you can tell us, what type of picture is this?
Kristie LaRochelle: This is a corporate headshot. This beautiful lady was Meredith and she’s actually a Mary Kay consultant, and so obviously she’s got some beautiful makeup, and she just wanted to present herself in the best light and just feature herself in a professional manner because she treats her business very seriously. I love this tone-on-tone look, I just think it complements her skin tone and her makeup and, obviously, she’s very attractive, and so we were just happy that we could create a beautiful image for her. That’s what a lot of people don’t realize that, once they come in, we really do a good job of setting them at ease, we have a stylist that can just help you make sure you look and feel your best, and it just takes all the anxiety out of having a picture made. Now this is industrial photography, and this is one of my favorite things to shoot actually, and people are like, “Why?” A lot of these are dirty buildings and they’re building machines and things like this, but we lit this with a purple gel in the background, and we got the sparks flying. So, we can really do some really cool, creative things. Sometimes our business clients are a little bit more conservative, which is fine, and so we just get to be a little bit more artistic in the industrial world, and trying to turn something ordinary into some extraordinary is quite fun for me. This is a product image. You wouldn’t believe, it took us about five hours to create this one picture. I think the illusion of things are just quick, people just don’t get it, I mean we’re working with clear surfaces, we’re working with liquid and water, I can’t tell you how many times we had to drop stuff into that glass to get the right splash. And then there’s some post-processing that goes on to make these images look like that. This is really a highly stylized image that took a lot of time to create, and that’s another thing people don’t realize, there really is a lot of time that goes into crafting these images.
Sarah: Commercial photography.
Kristie LaRochelle: This is one of our banking clients, and so we do a lot of this day in and day out. This was a banner for their website, just showing a good customer service relationship and trying to show off the branch and things like that. Again, we moved everything out of the picture, we brought in lights, we have the model there that’s in the foreground, and then we strategically placed everything that you see in a picture, so just making sure that things are clean and simple and just represent the bank as best we can.
Sarah: Those were great.
Glyna: Beautiful.
Sarah: It speaks volumes when you have a true professional photographer because I think all of us could say that we’ve had a not-so-professional experience, and then you pay for it and you’re looking at it and you’re like, “Oh my gosh.”
Kristie LaRochelle: And one thing I always say, it’s kind of funny, a lot of times people are like, “I just can’t afford that” or “We don’t have the budget for that,” and then they go in a different direction, and then when that doesn’t work out, they always seem to have the money to redo it. They want more in the long run. And sometimes I’m like, “Well, maybe it’s best to push it off for six months or create a budget,” a lot of people don’t even know what their budget or what it costs or whatever. But sometimes it’s better just maybe if you can’t really do it right now, maybe wait three months or six months, and then spend the money to do it right. And that’s another thing, the upfront cost can seem like a lot, but then you think, okay, you’re going to be using these images for the next three years of your business, and if you divided that cost out by 365 days a year times three, you’re really coming down to pennies or dollars a day for your marketing, and so sometimes people don’t think about it like that, they just think, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got to spend this money today,” but what they don’t realize is that that money is really spread out over the next, a lot of times, three to five years. I mean how many times have you seen a headshot that’s 20-years-old? If you see the cost that they paid for that and the use that they got out of it for 20 years, you’re like-
Sarah: Yeah, when it comes to a headshot, it’s important to know to update it, don’t use your high school picture forever.
Kristie LaRochelle: Yes. We say: look at your stuff, if it’s older than three years, it’s definitely time for a refresh, and if it’s older than five years, then it’s definitely time to update. If it’s 20 or plus years, people are like, “I just looked so much better 20 years ago.”
Glyna: Well, yeah.
Kristie LaRochelle: But they’re usually generally shocked and surprised when they actually see the images, they’re like, “Wow, I actually look really good.” And so I think after they go through the process, they’re pleasantly surprised that they actually like the way they look now when it’s done right.
Sarah: Yeah. So, what is your process when you get started with your clients? Do you do a consultation? Do you brainstorm ideas? What’s it all about?
Kristie LaRochelle: Our first initial contact is a 15-minute consultation. If you go to our website, you’ll see our form is, “Hey, let’s schedule a consultation,” and sometimes people are a little reluctant to do that, but it’s really just a phone call; I have to ask a ton of questions. And then, depending on the site, I’ll probably schedule a site visit; I need to see the space, I need to see how big, how small, what we can do. And then we go through the creative process of talking about ideas, we talk about their branding, their colors, their schemes, what they hope to get out of it. It really is a partnership effort to collaborate with a client to get the images that they really want. And then once we have that understanding, then we can create a budget and a price based on that. There’s not just one end-all-be-all price for it because every job is custom, every job is different, for amount of time, some jobs need styling, some jobs don’t. We did a kitchen shot a couple weeks ago, I mean we brought in $500 worth of props just to be able to style this kitchen in the way that we needed. I mean it really is all just very different and it’s not one cookie-cutter approach. So, by getting to know our clients and meeting with them and talking to them on the phone and meeting them in person, we really can make a great plan that’s going to work for their needs.
Kelsi: It seems like every shoot you do is really tailored.
Kristie LaRochelle: It really is. Upfront, people are a little nervous, but after they’ve done one shoot with us, they’re mindblown, they’re like, “Wow, I had no idea” all of the steps and the processes that go into it. And so we like to take all that on to take the stress off the company because we know their marketing directors have a lot on their plate and a lot to do, and so we really want to just make the process working with us super easy so that they’re just helping us facilitate it and getting the people there that need to be there and those types of things and not having to stress over the actual planning of the shoot and that sort of thing.
Kelsi: Absolutely. Well, you mentioned earlier that you have a stylist that works for you. Can you touch on how having that stylist is a really essential component of what you do?
Kristie LaRochelle: Yes, it certainly is. We style men and women, and people don’t think men wear makeup; well, that’s not exactly true. A lot of times, it’s just smoothing out skin tones or making sure there’s no shiny heads. Sometimes, people come in and they needed a haircut, and we can make that happen, just to make sure that they’re looking their best, and especially for women, our approach is super natural. Everybody’s been to the mall and had that, I call it the “Honey Boo Boo makeup job” that just looks terrible. There really is a difference in makeup for photography. We have 800-powered light that’s going to hit you in your face, and so there’s just some different techniques that need to happen to make sure that you don’t wash out and that you do have a natural look. So, while sometimes people may feel like they’re wearing a lot of makeup, when you see the final result, our motto is: if you can see the makeup, it’s too much. So, we really just want to bring people the best look without being overdone, and so I think people really enjoy the natural approach that we have and that the makeup feels really natural. We want them just to be the best version of themself. But what it also does, a lot of people that sit in the makeup chair are like, “I feel like I’ve been at the spa,” it relaxes them, it takes their anxiety down, and they know that this professional here that they trust has done a great job for them, and so it just instantly brings up their attitude and their personality, and that just really resonates on camera, and you just get a better look and a better smile, or not everybody has to smile, just a better picture because they inherently just feel better about themselves. And then when we’re on set, it’s not all about hair and makeup, it is, but like I said, it’s getting all the supplies that have to be at the shoot and being able to shop with props and know exactly what kind of spoons or plates or platters or cakes or whatever that might need to be there, and having all that brought together and then being able to put it in the set and make it look good. So, there’s a lot that goes into the styling, whether it’s on the hair and makeup side. We also consult with wardrobe, too; if we’re doing one headshot, we might have them bring in four outfits so we can really see what color looks best with them, see what color works best with their brand, and see what fits appropriately. You wouldn’t believe, a lot of people put on their suit they hadn’t had on in like five years. And then, other times, it’s falling off, it’s a little too big. So, we do some modifications to help those clothes fit a little better. It’s just good having a team helping you be prepared.
Kelsi: Absolutely.
Glyna: I’m laughing because any time I go get my picture taken, I have nothing in my closet, or you’re convinced you have nothing that you can use.
Kristie LaRochelle: And it’s funny because a lot of times the stylist will pull two things and put it together and they’re like, “That looks amazing. I would have never put that together myself,” so sometimes just having that extra set of eyes to look at things, and then they just love what ends up coming out of it. It really is an added value to have a stylist involved in our photoshoots.
Glyna: One of the things that I love that you talked to us about this week is that you do what’s called tethering photography. Now, explain that, and this really will get people’s confidence up, too. This is amazing.
Kristie LaRochelle: A tethering just means that our cameras plug into our laptop, and if we’re in the studio, we have it tethered to our big computer screen or our TV. Where is it? There it is, over there. During the middle of our shoot, as we’re taking the headshots, the images are popping up instantly as we’re taking the pictures, and we can allow our clients to just turn around and look and see, and they’re like, “Wow, that’s me?” Everybody’s nervous and they’re, “Oh my God, I look terrible, I hate the way I look,” or whatever, and then while we’re in the process, we can show them those pictures, and then they’re like, “I don’t look terrible,” then they get a little more peppy and the shoot just goes a little better. And then we also do it because we all want our hair to look right and we don’t want our tie to be crooked, and they can look at it and they’re like, “My hair’s way too flat, I need some poof,” it just allows them to be involved in the process. So, we have 100% guarantee, like we’re not going to let you leave here until you love the picture, and so we tell everybody that comes in, “If there’s something that you don’t love, just be open with us, be honest with us, we don’t have egos, we’re here to fix it, we’re here to help guide you.” But if you’re just like, “I need to do something different that,” then I’m like, “Let’s go over there, let’s change it, let’s fix it,” and then we’ll come back and we’ll shoot some more pictures. I’ve heard, time and time again, people have the experience where they went, they sat down, they snapped six or seven pictures, they left; a couple days, a couple weeks, they get this contact sheet and they’re like, “Oh my God, I got to pick one of these?” At that time, you’ve either got to redo it, at an added expense. The time, I mean time is money these days, and people just don’t have a lot of time to have to come back in and redo something, so the fact that we can show them everything right then and there. Most days, we’ll just go ahead and edit it and send it right there, so it’s truly the same day, with the headshots. Now, when we’re on location, it’s a little bit different, but we still use the same process, we are tethered, the client’s involved, we’re shooting a machine, we’re shooting a banking customer. When you’re looking at something this big, you’re like, “There’s a trashcan back there, let’s move that out of the shot. Let’s get that Coke can out of the picture,” because a lot of people, “You can just Photoshop that.” Photoshop is a great, wonderful, magical tool, but not everything needs to be done in the Photoshop; being able to see it and edit it in-camera just makes the process … I’d rather take five seconds to get that out of my picture than try to spend 45 minutes in Photoshop trying to make it look right. So, tethering just really allows us to be super precise and create images and keep our clients involved in the process, and they love, love, love that because trying to have five people huddled behind the screen of a camera trying to make a decision about a picture, it’s just not good. So, tethering just allows us to share the work, and then people get excited, and then they’re just happy to see the process. And then if they do get to see us edit, “Wow, if I’d known you could do that, I would have done it five years ago,” maybe it’s a little forehead wrinkle. Everybody usually has one eye that’s smaller that they want bigger. A lot of people feel like their smile’s crooked, and I’m like, “We can push it up little bit.” Some other people feel like their cheeks are fat and I’m like, “We just squish that down a little.”
Glyna: Wow. I didn’t know you could do all that.
Kristie LaRochelle: I mean it’s not to make them somebody different, it’s looking into one tiny subtle thing that just lets them see themselves the way that they feel like they look, and then they’re like, “Amazing, I love it.” So, that’s a fun part of the process that people really enjoy is getting to see some of that in action.
Sarah: Right, yeah.
Kelsi: I bet when they leave your studio after being able to see their images, it’s like a sense of relief.
Kristie LaRochelle: Absolutely.
Kelsi: They don’t have to play the waiting game, “I just paid all this money, now I got to wait and see what I got.”
Kristie LaRochelle: Then they have anxiety for the next three days, and if you are not very fast and you don’t get it to them for a couple weeks, they have stressed about that for two weeks. I don’t want to add that stress to people. They can it while they’re here, then they’re ready to share it, and then they leave. A lot of times, I’m like, “Go call your husband, call your boyfriend, you need to go on a hot date because you look amazing. Get a little bit more mileage out of this look you got going on here.” People really do enjoy being involved in the process, and I think that’s one thing that makes us a lot different.
Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. So, do you have specific industries or businesses or niche markets that you work with or that you specialize in? Or is it just any kind of corporate or commercial?
Kristie LaRochelle: I would say just any business that is really serious about taking their branding to the next level and that really wants to position themselves in a professional light. We work with dentists, we work with doctors, we work with lawyers, we work with industrial clients, we work with banking clients. So, the clients really are a great range, and that’s fun for me because I’m always doing something a little different. But I think what all my clients have in common is that they really care about their images and they care that their website and their marketing materials look professional, and they care that their team looks the best that they can look. And so those are the people that we have a good … And it’s not for everybody, not every company is going to have the budget or wants to have the budget or wants to spend money on it, but I can’t tell you … We had a client, they were an HVAC company and they were doing millions, billion dollars’ worth of businesses with these very large companies, but their website just looked very mom-and-pop, and they were losing a lot of contracts because their customers just didn’t really think that they had the capabilities. I mean they told them they did and all that, but when they went to their website, they were just like, “I don’t know,” and so they just couldn’t understand why they were losing contracts. We went in and did two days’ worth of shoots, we shot their team, we shot some of the projects, and then they had to redesign their website, and they started landing those clients left and right because their website and their marketing finally told the story of the true professionals that they were and that they can handle million-dollar contracts. And so people were just scared to put the money in their hands because they just felt like a mom-and-pop shop. And so once they got that changed, I mean it just … We have a thing, it says, “Your pictures could be worth a million dollars if it attracted your best customer,” and it’s so true. And so when people can think about their images and what it portrays and that the little bit of money that they’ll spend on the frontend, the value that it really has and what it can really do for them over the course of the next couple years, it’s really well worth the investment.
Glyna: Absolutely. Well, gosh, I can’t believe it’s been 30 minutes. While we finish up here, we’re going to run your information across the screen. We want to also ask you: who are the best referrals for you, or referral partners? Who brings you the most business?
Kristie LaRochelle: People that have worked with us and understand the process are great referrals for us because they can really speak to our process and our professionalism and our quality. Once you’ve been through the process, you just really understand it. Obviously, we would love a referral from anybody, or if you know somebody that is in the marketing role at a company. The pandemic has been a little crazy and things have slowed down a little bit, but it’s given people time to really think about their marketing and really polish some of the things that are going on, especially moving forward towards this quarter and into the new year. So, if you’re just thinking about updating some stuff. My challenge is: go to your website or go to your marketing materials and look at your website, and if it has not been updated in three years, then it’s probably time to think about some new photography, maybe some new tech, just some new graphics. The digital market is ever-changing, and what was popular three years ago, a lot of it is out-of-style or out-of-date. So, just keeping it fresh and keeping that content fresh, not only is great for your SEO, it’s just great to let your customers know that you care about your business and you’re investing in your company.
Glyna: Now you’re talking our language.
Sarah: Absolutely.
Glyna: We need you to talk to our customers and we need them to talk to you. Well, Kristie, now we’re going to have a little bit of fun, we’re going to put you on the hot seat for 60 seconds, so we’re ready to go there.
Sarah: And I do want to just mention real quick, for our podcast, you can send her an email at kristie@kpstudios.com, and it’s KP Studios Commercial Photography. All right, we are going to move on onto our fun little hot seat. These questions, I’m going to warn you, they’re super random.
Kristie LaRochelle: Okay.
Sarah: There is no pattern to any of this, so you just answer with the first thing that comes to mind, okay?
Kristie LaRochelle: Is this a one-word answer?
Sarah: It is, it’s a one-word answer.
Kristie LaRochelle: Okay.
Sarah: Okay, all right, who’s got my timer?
Glyna: I got you.
Sarah: Okay. All right, Kristie, ready?
Kristie LaRochelle: Okay.
Sarah: Would you rather never use social media again or never watch TV again?
Kristie LaRochelle: Never watch TV.
Sarah: Okay. What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
Kristie LaRochelle: Working at the grocery store.
Sarah: Okay. What’s the better train-wreck show: Desperate Housewives or The Bachelor/Bachelorette?
Kristie LaRochelle: I hate them both. Probably The Bachelor/Bachelorette.
Sarah: Okay. Would you rather go 24 hours without sleep or 24 hours without food?
Kristie LaRochelle: Without food, I need my sleep.
Sarah: All right, what’s worse: walking in stilettos all day or wearing jeans that are two sizes too small?
Kristie LaRochelle: That’s tough. The stilettos.
Sarah: Say it again.
Kristie LaRochelle: The stilettos.
Sarah: Okay. What would be harder to give up: sugar or coffee?
Kristie LaRochelle: I gave up sugar three years ago, so I’m going to stick with the coffee.
Sarah: Nice. Would you rather have more time or more money?
Kristie LaRochelle: Time.
Glyna: And speaking of time, it’s up.
Kelsi: Good job.
Kristie LaRochelle: You never seem to have enough time.
Sarah: That’s true.
Glyna: That’s exactly right. Well, again, we want to thank you so much for taking time out of your extremely busy day to join us this morning.
Kristie LaRochelle: Well, I thank you ladies, I think y’all are doing a great job, it’s a privilege and honor to be invited on the podcast, and so I just want to thank y’all for having me here today, and just look forward to all the future relationships that can be built.
Glyna: Sounds wonderful. Well, we also want to thank everybody for tuning in and joining us today, we had such a great time! And don’t forget to join us Tuesday mornings at 8:00 for Marketing Mix, and then, of course, we’ll be back next Friday for Biz Talk at 8:00, with our special guests, Dr. Miracle and Dr. Keith, with Quest for Health Chiropractic. So, everybody have a great week and we will see you then.
Kristie LaRochelle: Bye-bye!