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Success – Jason + Gina

At the beginning of 2009, after a season of reflection, I decided I wanted to evolve from amateur to professional photographer. A wedding photographer. I had never shot a wedding, nor had I been to a wedding in quite a few years. Nevertheless, I began to meet with wedding planners. I didn’t have a portfolio, or a website for that matter. I simply went to wedding planner meeting at Starbucks with the intention of getting to know the planner, and sharing as little about myself as possible.

Miraculously, I booked ten weddings in 2009, grateful to receive $500 from most brides, who found me on Craigslist. Soon, I realized that two photographers would be much better for business and my own sanity at a wedding, so I recruited Gina (my fiancée at the time) and, with no prior experience, she joined me in the business.

In retrospect, I am shocked that we didn’t crash and burn immediately.

Our final two weddings of 2009 turned out to be incredible, both with our perfect bride (though we didn’t know who our perfect bride was at the time). Those two weddings became our ‘featured’ weddings on our website. We booked and shot 23 weddings in 2010. With an average price of $3,750 per wedding, we felt that we had developed momentum to carry us well into the future. We didn’t, however, know what the next steps were. I had reached the end of my expertise.

On an October afternoon, while wrapping up our 2010 wedding season, and heavily booking into 2011, I was perusing Facebook and saw a post by Jeff Jochum. He indicated he was interviewing one-on-one photography business consulting clients. I hadn’t previously met Jeff, and didn’t know much about him. But, I knew that our business was doing well, and I didn’t know why.

I reached out to Jeff and scheduled an initial consultation with him. We spent an hour and a half chatting about our experience and feeling that we had reached an imaginary ceiling in our business. He was both empathic and encouraging, sharing with me his experience helping photographers transform their business from average to top-tier. Then he let me know his fee… My response, was, “Damn it Jeff, now I have to hire you. You’re like me!”

We began working together in November of 2010. It was a grueling process of self-reflection. Gina and I spent hours attempting to define why our brides loved us, what the common traits among our clients were, and who we were as a husband and wife photography team. Jeff never gave us answers; he merely nudged us in a slight direction and turned us loose to try to figure out what made us YOUnique.

One afternoon, after a call with Jeff, we struck gold. We discovered that our most fulfilling (as if it wasn’t even work) weddings and favorite brides had one thing in common. They were active. Meaning, they lived active lifestyles. We chose one of favorite brides of all time and began to write about her.

With Jeff’s guidance, we mapped out our favorite bride:

  • Works out before work.
  • Loves long walks with her dog.
  • Takes her work very seriously… And is passionate about what she does.
  • Is best friends with her entrepreneurial fiancé.
  • Is very playful and easygoing with her fiancé.
  • Feels a little shy about being the center of attention, but absolutely soaks it in.
  • Lives for summer trips to the mountains.
  • Throws her hair in a ponytail…. Very, very often.
  • Loves to wear really fancy shoes during her ceremony and change into classy comfy shoes for the reception.
  • One of her best friends is her mom.
  • Has a sweet and playful relationship with her father.
  • Takes a 5 mile run on the morning of her wedding because running makes her feel alive.
  • Is not super girly… She loves being beautiful, but not gaudy in any way.
  • She’s understated… beautiful, confident, but not extravagant or flashy.
  • Her ring is simple… even if it’s huge.
  • Wears really expensive jeans, but only because they’re the only ones that fit her right.
  • Spends money like she’s investing. She’s deliberate.
  • She is not cheap.
  • Loves it when the new J.Crew catalog comes in the mail.
  • Prefers a glass of wine or microbrew beer to champagne
  • Buys her running shoes at a specialty running store.
  • Loves wearing her athletic clothes.
  • Wears nice athletic clothes, again, because it makes her feel alive.
  • She has friends that are long-term friends.
  • She likes quality time.
  • She values intimacy more than partying/socializing.
  • She has high ‘big picture’ expectations, but doesn’t get bogged down in the details.
  • She has a competitive background (and/or has played competitive sports).

As we reviewed our profile of our perfect bride, the ‘ah ha’ moment hit us. This bride is just like Gina and her groom is just like me (Jason). The absolute freedom and simplicity of this concept was like the release of a tidal wave for us. Everything finally made sense.

With this new awareness, we slowly changed everything about our business. It was a process of self-actualization for us. Our old brand JasonG Photographer became Jason+Gina Wedding Photographers. Our logo became a statement about me and Gina.

Our website became incredibly simple, with one primary goal: to polarize potential clients towards or away from us, immediately. Either they’re active couples planning and outdoor wedding in Colorado or they’re not. Our photography blossomed because we were confident our clients would love what we shot. We knew who we were and how we love to shoot… and that’s exactly what our clients hired us for. Our primary motto became:

We’re sun-loving photographers for active, vibrant, and naturally elegant brides.

Our brand transformation took place during the first half of 2011. I was scared to death, but trusted the process and Jeff to not lead us astray. We increased our wedding fee (w/o albums) to $5,500 and booked out the rest of 2011 with ease. Having shot 32 weddings in 2011, Jeff encouraged us to increase our fees again at the beginning of 2012. Our average wedding fee in 2012 jumped to $6,500 as we booked outdoor weddings with active couples with ease. We booked and shot 34 weddings in 2012 and turned away over 75 perfect weddings because we were either already booked or just outside of a brides budget.

Having streamlined our workflow to become THE photographers for active brides planning outdoor weddings in Colorado, we’ve begun to transform our business again. With Jeff’s guidance, we’ve asked three partner photographers to join us. They also share our passion for outdoor sun-drenched weddings. Our average booking fee for 2013 is $7,500 and we’re only booking our perfect bride… and we worked happily ever-after.

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