495: Gary Hughes – How to gain traction and grow your headshot and commercial photography business

PhotoBizX The Ultimate Portrait and Wedding Photography Business Podcast

Premium Members, click here to access this interview in the premium area.

Gary Hughes of www.hughesfioretti.com had a string of jobs before finding his way to professional photography — the career of both his parents.

He worked for several years with other studios before launching his business in partnership with his wife.

Since then, he's been recognised as one of the top 10 photographers in central Florida and has presented at Creative Live, Imaging USA, WPPI and more.

Specialising in headshots, events, modelling and commercial photography — his mission is to empower professionals and creatives with awesome images to help them market their brands.

Gary, with his wife Julie Fioretti, form the team that makes up Hughes Fioretti Photography.

In this interview, he shares how to gain traction faster to grow your headshot and commercial photography business successfully.

Here's some more of what we covered in the interview:

• How Gary started his photography business
• The downside of monetising your hobby/passion
• What is the hobby paradox
• How to find the right photography niche for you
• How to transition to a different photography genre
• Having time as the central motivator for running a successful business
• How to make important decisions to grow your business
• Bad decisions Gary made when starting his business
• Gary's advice to new photographers
• How Gary discovered his passion for headshot photography
• Gary's revenue today
• How to start bringing in clients
• How to focus on Google organic results
• How to create a high-converting website
• How long should photographers take to gain traction with their business
• Email marketing is the bread and butter of Gary's business
• How Gary sets up his Google Ads for successful lead generation

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this interview – the full-length and more revealing version where you hear the absolute best tips and advice from every guest.

If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interviews each week, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.

Plus, special member-only interviews.

You won't enjoy the business side of your business until you start making good decisions. – Gary Hughes

You'll also receive access to the members-only Secret Facebook Group, where you can connect with other Premium Members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take ideas you hear in each episode and put them into action. There are also FB live video tutorials, role-play interviews and special live interviews happening in the group. You will not find more friendly, more motivated, caring and sharing photographers online.

Seriously, that's not all.

In addition to everything above, you'll get access and instructions on forming or joining a MasterMind Group with other premium members. These groups are super motivating, make you accountable and build friendships with other pro photographers with similar motives to you – to build a more successful photography business.

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Gary shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below; let me know your takeaways and what you plan to implement in your business due to what you heard in today's episode.

If you're good at running a business and you can take a decent photo, you'll always have a good business. – Gary Hughes

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Gary or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them in the comments area below.

iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

Each week I check for any new iTunes or Google reviews, and it's always a buzz to receive these… for several reasons.

Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes and Google are the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts, and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners mean more interviews and, ultimately, a better show.

If you have left a review in the past, thank you! If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes or https://photobizx.com/google, and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show, and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.

Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast and email me your keywords or keyword phrase and where you'd like me to link to.

Adwords can give you a much better return but the degree of difficulty to do it well is much higher. – Gary Hughes

Another great way to get a backlink to your site is to send a video testimonial. It doesn't need to be fancy, and your phone will be perfect. Click record and tell me how PhotoBizX has impacted you and your photography business.​

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Gary Hughes Website

Gary Hughes on YouTube

Gary Hughes on Instagram

Hughes Fioretti Photography on YouTube

Hughes Fioretti on Facebook

Gary Hughes on LinkedIn

Hughes Fioretti Education

Episode 145: Peter Hurley – How To Survive and Thrive as a Headshot Photographer

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening, and thanks to Gary for sharing his thoughts, ideas and advice on gaining traction and growing a headshot and commercial photography business based on his experience as a photographer looking to find the right niche.

Ads will fail you if you don't send them to a place that is a good converting website with all the information they need. – Gary Hughes

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

Thanks, and speak soon
Andrew

The post 495: Gary Hughes – How to gain traction and grow your headshot and commercial photography business appeared first on Photography Business Xposed - Photography Podcast - how to build and market your portrait and wedding photography business.