EP:63 - Entrepreneur Inspiration - Behind the Lens with Misha Guseynov

 Misha Guseynov is a seasoned photographer known for his dynamic approach to capturing life's most significant moments. Misha's photography isn't just about clicking the shutter button; it's about crafting memorable experiences, emphasized by his robust customer service focus. His journey from snapping casual photos to becoming a sought-after professional in South Florida's vibrant wedding scene is both inspiring and instructive.

In this episode, Misha shares his insights into building a successful photography business, the importance of specializing in a niche, and how he carved out a name for himself in the competitive wedding photography market. He discusses the transformative advice he received in a Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, which propelled him to focus on weddings, dramatically improving his business trajectory. The conversation also highlights his unique method of creating engaging and joyful interactions during photo sessions, making him a preferred choice for couples.

Listeners looking to understand the nuances of turning a passion into a thriving business will find Misha's strategies invaluable. Focusing on niches like wedding photography, leveraging excellent customer service, and the importance of creating an experience, not just a service, are key themes. Aspiring photographers and entrepreneurs can glean lessons on personal branding, the power of networking, and adapting business models to meet client expectations, all essential for success in today's saturated markets.

Questions Answered in this Episode:
1. How did Misha Guseynov turn his passion for photography into a successful wedding photography business?
2. What are the best strategies for providing exceptional customer service in photography?
3. How can new photographers find their niche and excel in competitive markets like wedding photography?

Timestamps of Key Moments:
[05:22 - 06:45] Misha discusses transitioning from casual photography to professional wedding photography, emphasizing the need for focusing on a niche to enhance business growth.
[12:34 - 13:59] Misha shares the pivotal advice he received about business focus, which helped him streamline his services towards weddings, significantly increasing his market presence.
[18:47 - 20:15] The conversation explores how Misha uses unique interaction techniques during shoots to create memorable experiences, setting his services apart in the photography industr

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Transcript

0:23

I'm very heavily customer service oriented, meaning that I don't just click on a camera button. I want to provide a beautiful experience for you from creating quality work. Welcome to another episode on the OWL Podcast. If this is your first time tuning in, this is one of the only podcasts where we do live call-ins. All you got to do is go over to the OWL app. It's O-W-W-L-L in the App Store or Google Play Store. Download it. You get 10 free bucks to make a couple of calls on the house. And you call our guest to my left, Misha. He's an expert. He's a photographer. He did the OWL launch party at the Nova Levan Center of Innovation. All those amazing photos came from Misha. And welcome back to the studio. How's it feel? Thank you. It feels good to be back in the sunshine, the beach, all the good things about Boca Raton. You had no beach. What was the life there? It was weird. I did a couple of hikes. Their water is disgusting. You can't go swimming in it. I was like a kid in a candy store a bit because it's like the Vegas for musicians. I needed to rein it in. I went out every night. It's time to get back on a schedule and live the adulting life, I guess. Back to adulting. Reality. Yes. Give us a couple of takeaways, though. I saw a lot of people downloading OWL, right? So you're out there telling everyone about the platform, of course. I became an expert, so I'm taking calls. But give us a couple of highlights on it. Well, I guess I did get to write with some Grammy-nominated writers. So I think being in a place where it is the mecca for music, it does make a difference. We always talk about this with networking, showing up, being in a room. I went out every single night I was there because I was like, I'm only here for three weeks. I want to take advantage. So I would just go up to people and be like, hi. And I think tying it back to OWL, that's the beauty of OWL, too. You see someone that you want to call, don't be afraid to make that first move and just reach out. Because I think people, especially after COVID, are itching to make connections. So yeah, I think that was my favorite part. I thought that I would be there doing a lot more writing. But to be honest, I ended up spending most of my time just networking. I think I only wrote two songs when I was there. I also got to perform at a cool writer's round there, which was fun. But yeah, most of my time was going to Soho House, networking. I played a little pickleball, of course, our favorite sport. Pickleball podcast, someone out there, right? Yeah, yeah. If you're out there and want to do a pickleball podcast, you can come to our studio right here. If you're an expert, let us know. We would love to have you. I like that you're bringing all this up about the networking and building relationships. Because our guest today, Misha, literally, he was going to FAU College of Business, and he would just sneak into the Shrimp Tank Studio. So often, we would tell all the students at FAU, you're welcome. And you know what happened? No one would show up. This makes no sense. We have all these amazing entrepreneurs. We've had Celsius Beverage on that podcast, BurgerFi, Bolay. And week after week, we didn't see students showing up. But this guy to my left showed up. He gets it. Our first 100 episodes were not the College of Business. They were right here. So Misha used to come into the studio. And he'd always text me. He's like, hey, Jason, can I swing on by? Can I swing on by? Because he saw the value in these relationships. And he wanted to learn new techniques that he could use later in life, right? Podcasting was really getting going when we started, right? 2017, 2018. It's not like it is today. Now there's over 2 million podcasts. I think 500,000 podcasts have only one episode. And I think 60% of podcasts have under 10, which is nuts. What was really cool is Misha and I built a really unique relationship where he would just ask and I would give. It was simple as that. And Misha now, it's incredible to see his journey because it was actually the Dunkin' Donuts. I literally was driving one day by Dunkin' Donuts. And I saw him like, hey, jump in my car. And I could tell you were a little defeated. You're like, everyone is in this situation. When you start your first business, you try to do everything. And I remember I was chatting with Misha, I'm like, go after where the money is. Where's the money in photography? He loves editing. He did all these videos way back in the day for free. We did this thing called Entrepreneurs in Paradise 2018, 2019. And he did a lot of the videos for that on the house because he just wanted to get the experience. And when we were in that Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, I'm like, where do people spend money? And it was weddings. And it was cool because after that, I just started seeing you really go after a niche. And then I see all these reviews pouring in and the images and happy moments. And it's been an incredible journey I could see. And we want to learn about that today. So let's start out with your current business. Tell the world out there that's listening about your current business so they can really learn. And of course, call you later on in the day. Awesome. Well, thank you for having me, first of all. Yeah, Jason and I have a unique relationship for sure. And I would say I'm where I am in this spot in my life because of you, in one way or another, because you introduced me to certain people and you taught me how to talk to people. And it's just an amazing journey. You've known me since I was a little pea. Yeah. Business competitions, you had other businesses, you had successes, failures. But yeah, I saw you go through all those ups and downs. Yeah. And to make a long story short, it's a family business. Mom and I own a photography and videography company serving everyone in South Florida. And it started as a very small boutique company. We were trying to get any job we could. And now we're one of the, maybe even the most five-star reviewed photography and videography business in South Florida with over 700 five-star reviews. So we go pretty hard at what we want to get and we do concentrate on that. What makes you so unique? There are so many photographers. You go on Google and you search, obviously you guys are coming up high now, but when you first started, you were not coming up high. Had to be word of mouth. But what makes you unique? What is the whole experience about why others are choosing you and why they leave that positive review? Gotcha. How I like to describe my company, I don't say it's a photo and video company. It's a customer service company. I'm very heavily customer service oriented, meaning that I don't just click on a camera button. I want to provide a beautiful experience for you from creating quality work to making it fast, communicating well with you, and just making sure that after you work with me, you either want to refer me, want to leave me a good review and just want to have a beautiful experience with this. And I'm curious, Jason mentioned a little bit of the niche. Are you doing mainly weddings or is there one particular event that is your specialty or do you just go all across the board like any event? So about 70 to 80% of our business are weddings, engagements, proposals, everything love related, not just because that's where money is at. I know lots of photographers who just do real estate. Some people just do commercial work. I love working with people. I communicate a lot. I used to teach at FAU, as you know, at some point in my journey. And that's probably why I wanted to come to your podcast because I wanted to learn how to communicate well. And when I work with couples and people in general, a lot of communication is involved in some photographers and videographers. They don't like doing it. They don't like doing sales. That's why perhaps they stick with real estate because it's very minimal talking to people. Unless you are a pro real estate photographer and who gets most of the business, then you do have to talk to people. But yeah, that's... You do have to be a character. One thing I've noticed is during the OWL launch event, June 7, 2022, you were out there and making people laugh. It wasn't just like, stand by the backdrop and take some photos. You're like, smile, everybody, cheers. And you were making comments the whole time, which was part of the process where it does separate you from the pack because someone leaves with an experience and people always remember how you left them feeling at the end of the day. And what you're saying is some people can't do that. That's a natural ability, but it comes with communication skills. You have to be able to communicate properly or people could take things the wrong way. So looking back, what was the hardest thing your first year in business? Often people see you now and it looks like you're making it look easy. The first year, it was not. When I met you in that Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, I could see in your eyes... Begging for change. I saw in your eyes... Buy me some coffee. A lot of professionals make the mistake, they blame it on the industry. They're like, oh, this just is a shitty industry. I should switch and start doing AI because AI is how I get ahead of the curve. Then it's Bitcoin. Then it's chasing finance because people make so much darn money in finance, either insurance products or wealth management. But that day, you turned. You didn't give up. So tell us, what were the failures like that first year? Because a lot of people on OWL, about 80% are solo entrepreneurs. And they were like you in that parking lot right now. And they're like, in their mind, should I switch or should I keep going? So tell the audience some of those setbacks you went through and what you had to overcome and how did you overcome? Let me talk about the parking lot situation real quick because you make me sound like I was some homeless guy staying at Dunkin' Donuts. No, I just saw you at Dunkin' Donuts. Yeah, but I was... So everyone understands. Yeah. And you did help me out big time because that's when I concentrated on a niche. There's this thing called shiny object syndrome. And I am guilty of doing that as well. Me too. Everyone is. And it's not a bad thing. Once you recognize it, that's when you take it to the next level. I wanted to do everything in photography, but even in photography itself, if I concentrate on real estate, on personal photo shoots, on business, I'm not going to become master of everything. And chances are I'm going to fail or much higher. What I decided to do, I just niched down to weddings. And that was one of my reasons why I'm so successful. But to answer your question, one of the most difficult things, my first year of business was pretty much, it still is, getting leads and getting sales and making... It's a very saturated market, just like most of the industries, even your industry. You're reminding me, not to interrupt you, but you're reminding me of, you were saying the takeaways from Nashville. One of the biggest lessons now that it's... I'm like, what did I learn again? One of the biggest lessons for me was going there and seeing the sea of musicians who are all doing the same thing. They're all like, listen to my single, do this. A lot of them country in the same genre. And it's like, how do you stand out? And for me, I'm making this album of meditation music, which is also... Because for years, I was doing pop music and just doing the same thing. I'm like, I want to be a superstar. And now I'm totally changing my tune to how can I help you? I can help you be calm. I can help you sleep. I can help you with your anxieties, all these things through my own certification of meditation teacher and now this album. You do have to find... Finding a niche isn't... Because I noticed you can just get lost in the sea of people and just shiny object syndrome. And it's super helpful to have that niche. And also when you hit a certain point in your life, okay, what you love to do isn't necessarily going to be the thing that's also going to bring you income. And you can always still have that passion on the side. But yeah, I think getting practical about it is helpful. Well, whichever industry you get into, there's going to be competition. There are photographers who will shoot a full eight-hour wedding for 500 bucks. And there are photographers who will shoot a full eight-hour day for 20, 30, $50,000. That's where I'm trying to get. I'm not there yet. But I'm also not charging 500 bucks because the quality of service that I provide, it requires a lot of work. And that's when I try to educate my potential clients, explain it to them that it's not just camera, button clicking. Click a button, yeah. I need to... Travel even. Travel, editing. Usually it's multiple people involved. I usually involve two photographers, myself as a videographer and assistant. I have an editing team for photo and video. Also, I have to bring lots of energy on the day because some people, they're not that comfortable in front of the camera, like Jason was saying. And if I'm not doing my job right, the photos will not come out good. I need to make sure that you're having fun, you're entertained. Typically, I would tell the couple to start talking naughty things to one another. And he will tell her something inappropriate. Or my trademark is I'll ask him or her to whisper in their partner's ear what they're going to have for breakfast, lunch, or dinner in a very slow and seductive way. And usually that brings an enormous smile on their faces. They start laughing. And that's when I start taking those photos instead of them just standing in front of me, not knowing what to do. And I would say that's one of the things that separates me from most of the photographers. And that's why I charge a bit more than most. Although my prices are very affordable. Once again, I'm not trying to get people broke. I'm just trying to earn what is fair share for me. So yeah, one of the most... Getting back to your question, one of the most difficult things in business is getting those leads, getting sales. And just to give you an idea, I could get anywhere from 20 to 60, 80 leads per week. And out of those, I will book five or 10. But those leads are quality leads. Those are the people with whom I want to interact with, whom I want to serve. Sometimes the number is a bit higher. Sometimes it's lower. But I guess all of us can use some help with sales and lead generation. But I stuck with it. It was really, really tough from the point where I was making zero clients. Actually, one of my very first paid clients was a Groupon client. It was a lady. She wanted me to take photos of her daughter at Meisner Park. And I arrived early. She arrived a bit late. I took the photos. I'll admit, I was not as good of a photographer as I am now. So the photos weren't as good. But she didn't want to pay me the rest of the amount simply because she didn't like the photos. And that really... I was dead inside for a long time. And that was the pivoting moment. Either I give up photography or I stick with it. And I decided to stick with it. And there are a lot of situations like this, which make you wonder whether or not... Yeah, I was going to say, this is the most important day of most people's lives, like the wedding and the money they're putting into it. So do you do test photos ahead of time? Because I'm sure that people want to make sure... For women, we do the hair. They do a test of hair and makeup before deciding on who they're going to choose. Do people do that for you as well? How does that work? Absolutely. So the way it works with me, when you go to a car to buy a car, you want to test drive it first. And an engagement session is usually that test driving experience. First things first, we'll jump on a call. I'll show a couple of examples, but usually you can't judge a person based on other people's examples or other people's work. So what I like to do with my couples, I'll invite them to do an engagement session with me. I'll understand what they feel comfortable doing and what they don't feel comfortable doing. They will experience my communication style, my vibe in general. And also as a result, they will see the final edited photos. And usually people are sold already on the spot and they want to book me for their wedding simply because of the customer service that I do offer. Because once again, communication is very important for me. When you text me, I'll reply to you as soon as I can, usually in minutes, if not hours. And then I pose and guide you. So it's everything but the photography itself. And finally, the photos come out amazing and people are just completely sold. But I think we're getting a call or... You are. Awesome. You are. So this is the part of the show for everyone listening out on LinkedIn or YouTube where people in the OWL app are calling in to ask questions to Misha. So we have Eric Allen. Here's Eric, so you could see his entire profile. He is a substance abuse counselor. He's an influencer and he's just a ball of energy. Welcome Eric Allen to the OWL podcast. How are you doing today? Man, I'm full of life, man. I was just listening in on the live and I saw he was available. So I just wanted to shout you out, bro. And man, I shared it on my page. I want my people to call you today. They need all this value that you have to offer, man. So I'm going to make sure I'm very intentional and I'm going to be calling you, man, on the app. I don't want to put it on air because a lot of my strategies are secret. I don't like everybody knowing my business. So man, I see you are very valuable though, sir. Yes. Welcome to the app. Thank you, man. Do you have a specific question for me that I can answer to help you out with your business perhaps? Well, I'm new to LinkedIn and I just recently put out a journal for the recovery community and I'm really, really hoping to get people to engage. So what would you suggest I do to get more people engaged? I want to use LinkedIn to do it. How would I do that? Run ads, paid advertising. That's what I do for my business on Facebook, on Google. I don't run ads on LinkedIn because most of my clients are not on there. But that's what actually what I would do to get new clients. I would put together some kind of an article about five engagement poses or what to wear on your wedding day. And I will start advertising it, giving it away for free to connect with couples, to get in front of my potential client's eyes. And at the very least, they will get this free article. Ideally, they will connect with my message and they'll reach out to me and we will shoot their engagement session. I'll help them out with their wedding planning. And of course, I will shoot their wedding. So as a successful businessman, you need to give something of value for free. That's what most businesses do. And I don't know if that's your secret sauce that you're trying to sell. Perhaps you can give a small portion for free and the rest you can ask people to pay for. But ads, you do need to do paid advertising if you're trying to make your business grow. Yes. Okay. I appreciate that. That's solid. That's solid advice. I definitely appreciate that. I mean, I was worth a dollar for 10 minutes, guys. I think so too. You guys are not. Yes, please call me. Eric is something that's important. He's a photographer. He also does headshots. So the first thing someone does is they look at profiles and they judge, right? Absolutely. But how important, Misha, is that headshot on a LinkedIn profile? But everywhere, right? But specifically LinkedIn, because LinkedIn is not like Instagram. It's not like TikTok, right? You need a different vibe. You need to look more professional, right? So explain to Eric how important that headshot is. If you want to make money, that's pretty important. If you want people to take you seriously, that 10-year-old photo that you uploaded on Facebook or LinkedIn is not going to cut it when you're wearing some kind of a hat on and some kind of T-shirt. You need to wear clothing that will make you look professional. I don't like wearing suits, so I usually wear something like this shirt. And these are the photos of myself that I put out. But if you want people to take you seriously and you want to be competitive, you do need a high-resolution headshot. I have clients who are willing to pay me $200, $300, $400, $500 per headshot, depending on the package that I sell them. I do get headshot clients every week. Also, if you, the viewer, need a headshot, reach out to me. I'll give you a special owl discount and I'll definitely try to hook you up. But you do need a headshot for sure if you're- Well, no trying. No trying allowed, brother. I don't even like that word, try. You're either going to hook me up or you're not. Nah, I'm joking. No trying. Let's eliminate that word, try. Yep. Yes, ma'am. I'm going to throw something out there as well. So I spoke to, we have a new owl on our platform who's a LinkedIn expert. And he just gave me a little bit of advice. Paul. Yeah, Paul. So basically he was sharing, so Misha also does video. And he was mentioning that it's really important on your LinkedIn to, in terms of, you really want people to get to know you. They need to know and trust you, obviously, before they're going to buy something from you. So one thing that he recommended was to do a video specifically that either shows your story. So it's you talking about your story. And then also have a section of a more business of bio, like what you're going to offer them. So he said, you can either do the video telling your story or do the video telling what you're going to give them when they buy your service. So having that video, either choose which topic you're going to do in the video. And then also having the bio is super important. So yeah. Okay. I'm definitely listening. I'm definitely going to call Paul. I love owl, man. I'm in love with owl. I'm telling you guys, if you guys not on owl, I don't know what to tell you. Man, they are missing out on something legendary. You know what I'm saying? And everyone listening, all the photos on my LinkedIn bio, it's all from the launch event. You know, those big owl letters, those are taken by Misha. So Eric, go ahead, look at my LinkedIn. And we have a break between calls. I'll go head over to my LinkedIn and show everybody what we're talking about and the importance of good quality videos. Our launch video is still on my profile and people are able to click it. And that really makes a big difference. Yes, everyone can shoot on their own phone. People are lazy, right? They just shoot. They don't put the right background music. Having a professional that does this for a living, like there's a big difference with the captions and the tone of the color tone. It just creates the whole vibe. I feel like your brand and someone sees an amazing video, they're like, oh my gosh, I have to go to that event. Sometimes the video is way better than the event. I find that a lot with social media. You go to an event and it's like, people are just standing here and it's boring. And then you see the video and that looked amazing and it's not even as fun. It was like 20 people and it looked like hundreds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me say this. I'm going to come to Florida. I see it in my future. I see it in the next 60 days. So Misha, me pulling up next to you, instead of giving me an hour discount, give me a coming from long distance, Oregon discount. I'm going to promote you. Whatever we do, I'm going to take you with me. Sure. Here's what I'm going to do. I am following my words. Like I said, you need to give something away for free to grow your business. Everyone who is watching, everyone who's a big fan of either Jason, Danielle, or Al, or the three of them, I will offer you a free complimentary business video that I'll put together for you. So all you got to do is to reach out to me via Instagram or find me on Google quality media photo or quality media Florida on Instagram. Reach out to me, tell me you saw this episode and I'll put together a free business video for you, like an introductory video to tell the world what your business does. So once you come here, Eric, I'll hook you up. I'm reaching out to you now. I think you should remix that. I think you should actually make it only call you on Al to get that service. I like that. That's true. Yes. Because that's giving away too much. Yeah. Instagram ain't got nothing to do. They ain't helping us. So yeah. Yeah. And they have to use your referral code as well. So if you have friends that- Beautiful. I'll pop open the app after this call. I'll show the referral code. Eric, thank you. We're going to have some other people call in. So thank you for all that. Yeah. So everyone listening, look how cool this is. So now you can leave a review for Eric, great call. Oh, I went too quick, but here's his referral code. You can see right here, MG689050. So everyone listening on LinkedIn or YouTube, if you haven't downloaded Al, use that and you'll get $10. And also a free video. Yes. Someone heard that already and they're calling in. Hello, hello. How may I help you? Hello, hello, hello. What's up, Cassandra? Welcome to the OWL Podcast. How are you? I am awesome. I'm very excited. I knew I did a little background on my guests before calling in. So I was definitely elated to listen and get an opportunity to speak. Yes. Yeah. And you're in marketing. So this is going to be a good question, I bet. Right. How important good images are when it comes to marketing and good videos. So what's on your mind today, Cassandra? Absolutely. So yes, indeed. I definitely am always looking for people like yourself to collaborate with and just really just get myself where I need to. So I definitely understand the importance, especially of having good, good, I would say footage media, because sometimes it's unforgiving. So you have to be careful what you post out there. So I would say like for someone like myself, you know, I'm new to LinkedIn and just doing some things. I did clean up my bio. I cleaned up my about me session and my banner. So any other points or tips that you can provide that can really just bring that traction that I need? A podcast, I'm actually an author. I just started my own nonprofit organization, which is the LIE Foundation, which stands for loyalty and everything. So, yes, I definitely have a call to action. And, you know, a lot of things, community. I look at myself as a community connector, more or less. So, yeah. So, yeah. Any points you have for me, I'm here. Gotcha. Well, this is what we talked about with Eric. A headshot is a must if you want to be taken seriously and if you want to reach out to people, because once again, the very first thing they look at is what you look like. Unfortunately, that's the truth. Now, once again, I do not spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. That's not my social media platform. Perhaps, Jason, you can give Cassandra a quick advice. Yeah. So when it comes to LinkedIn, it's so different than Instagram, TikTok. It's the more formal platform, more professional platform. So people are going to immediately judge you off that headshot, right? They go off and they're searching different things. So right off the headshot and then the quality of the post, right? 99% of people don't post. Only 1% of people or so, 1% or 2% post on LinkedIn. So the benefit is start posting good quality photos and videos, right? Videos do very well on LinkedIn. So make sure that you're giving value, not soliciting. I think the biggest mistake on LinkedIn that people do is they immediately just start pitching like, hey, anyone needs help marketing, you know, call me or message me. I'm a big fan of the voice memo. I always say that. Voice note messages. But I've never sent a video message before, which for me, that's like too much. But I'm curious to hear from the video cameraman over here if what you think of video DMs and if they're like just a lot. That's a good question. Let me answer this in a second. One, another tip that I do want to give, follow up on what you just said. Yes, you do need quality content. People are willing to pay money for their lifestyle shoots, and that way they have a photo to attach with their post. Because when you just post an article or share a couple of thoughts or some kind of a tip or an advice for the day, people are less likely to view that article unless you have a photo or a video attached to it because it takes a lot more space on your feed. And what I'd recommend, if you have a bit of extra money to spend, hire a photographer to take some beautiful photos of you that you can attach to the post. If you do not, you can take some selfies. You can take selfie videos. iPhone has beautiful camera quality, which will get you that far. And at some point, you will have somebody to hire to do even more professional content. So that's another tip. Now, getting back to your question, Danielle, about video DMs. I've done it in the past, and it may be a bit too much. I would get a warmer lead, and I would send them a video message welcoming them, saying thank you for reaching out to me. And they would say it's weird, and they don't want to talk to me. I'm going to step in here because it could matter female versus male, right? It's no different than dating. I think I was watching a video yesterday on TikTok that it takes 200 swipes for most men to get one actual date. And I couldn't believe this. I'm not in the dating world, but out of five dates, four are no-showed. They ghost them or cancel the day of. So it's actually interesting because what you're saying about sending videos, like if Danielle sends a video to a guy, the success rate will be like 99%. If you or me send it to a female, we're getting 99% no, right? It goes the other direction. So it's interesting on the video side who's sending it. With that being said, I do have big success with audio because when you just send a text, hey, it's Misha with Quality Media. Thank you for reaching out. I'd love to talk to you. People may read it in different ways, but when I record my voice, the way I speak, people say that I'm excited to talk to them. I'm not just saying it all monotone. It's Misha with Quality Media. I'm saying, hey, thank you for reaching out, Cassandra. I'm so excited to talk to you. I would recommend if we schedule a call because once people hear what my personality is like or see me moving in a certain way, you see I'm very animated, they are more likely to spend more time talking to me and perhaps even booking me over a photographer or another professional who's just not very animated and doesn't show that much interest in doing the work. So yes, go ahead, Cassandra. Absolutely. I was going to say, so my biggest platform out to date will probably be Instagram and I'm just attempting to get that type of attraction to especially LinkedIn, but also YouTube because my podcast, I do visual. I actually go live, so it's very big and I use captions and things of that nature. So any other pointers you can give even just for those platforms because I do a lot of reels and things of that nature to bring more traction and I am utilizing ads. So I do use that product as well as far as ads on the different platforms. Yeah. I would say, look at me as an example. I have about a thousand followers on Instagram and I guarantee, I know for a fact that I'm making more money than some photographers who have 10, 20K followers. So follower count is not that important as long as you continue posting and there's a quality to your posts, even on LinkedIn, talking about the business atmosphere rather than personal because Instagram is a bit more personal. As long as you post, as long as you bring value to other people, they will see it and the way you bring people in is with paid advertising because you kind of slightly forcing them to pay attention to you and if they resonate with your message, they'll give you a follow and then they see you post and they see you post and they resonate with the message and at some point they'll give you a call and either book you to help with their marketing or whatever your service is, they will ask you for your help as long as they see the value. I do that as well. I paid $3,000 to a wedding professional who helped me to build my business and the only reason I decided to hire him and pay him that much money is because I followed him. I saw that he consistently was posting valuable tips and his posts would get five, 10 likes. So it's not a lot, but guess what? I saw lots of value. I took a leap of faith. I paid him money and I already got a pretty good return on investment and I'm pretty much doing the same thing because lots of couples, they're seeing me on Instagram and whether I have five likes or hundreds, hundreds of posts, they reach out to me and in many cases, we end up shooting their wedding. Another thing Misha mentioned which is just kind of coming to me now again is like giving away something for free to your audience, but you could even take it a step further. You'd mentioned that you have a big community and I know you're a social person. So maybe put it on an event and actually hiring a photographer for that and saying, hey guys, I'm going to do headshots, free headshots for everybody who comes to this event. I actually just went to an event in Nashville where they had a photographer there taking these really cool 360 photos and I was like, ooh, I got something out of it. So maybe doing something like that. Social media is great and all, but I still think the in-person events, if you can pull them off are worth it and what people really remember, they'll always remember something cool in person that you put on. Absolutely. Keep going, Cassandra. As long as you stick with it one way or another, you will become successful. Perhaps it will be a bit of a slower journey, but as long as you stick with it, you'll be successful. And plus you have lots of professionals to reach out to for advice like myself, Jason and Danielle, and yeah, we'll be happy to help you. Thank you, Cassandra. Yes, and I do look forward to looking out and I'm following you and I will be in contact. I would love to use your services for sure. Awesome. Yes, ma'am. Cassandra, thank you for calling on in. Okay. You mentioned- We're listening. Last shot to get on the show. So if you want to be the last caller. Who wants a free video? Actually, a fun story about it. Once again, I do what I preach and I'm a big foodie. I love restaurants. I'm spending lots of money going out to eat. So what I decided to do recently, I go to restaurants and I shoot a free commercial style video for them. And you guys have been on Instagram. You know what I'm talking about. It's like a real size video with some drone shots, beautiful shots of me chewing the food, of the chef preparing the food. And once again, food sales, just like other things, very visual things. And the idea here, I already enjoy doing it. I don't mind doing it for free. And in the long run, those restaurants, they like my work and they reach out to me and I already offer them packages to do more extensive content work that they can later turn into sales. So this is another example of me offering something of value for free. It can be fun for you too, when you offer something for free, just like it's for me. And as the result, you potentially can make money in the future. And if you are watching this and you're a restaurant owner, reach out to me. I'll be delighted to join, to come over to your restaurant, try some of your meals and also record a beautiful video that potentially will make you some money. And look at the photo on the screen. See that? The audience can see it. There you go. I remember that. That was it. We had the big owl letters. Who's that handsome devil on the left? And then down below, I mean, we're talking about LinkedIn. What we've done is down here, founder of Owl. I put more videos down here. Makes me very happy that I'm on top of your LinkedIn. So it's cool. It's not just the video somewhere here too. I think that is the video actually, click it. I don't want to put the sound on because we're recording, but it's right here in all that quality. And then the name, and like you were saying, Danielle, there was like 150, 200 people, but the way this video looks with the aerial views, it's just like people are like, Oh, I wish I could have came there and part of it because there's the drone footage. People forget about that. They saw the fountains and then the slow mo like that real part. It's like only professionals can really do that. That's true. I think also you were talking about lead generation. I mean, guys, Owl is the lead generator. I actually had, I was showing the app to someone over the weekend and they were like, Oh, so it's a lead generating app. And I'm like, exactly. So, you know. Sorry for interrupting you. No, no, that was it. We might be having technical difficulty. We had two people calling in simultaneously. Oh, I'm famous. I like this. Hello. Hello. Rayo McGarry. I like this one because she is all into video and images. She has an entire podcast network and an Emmy award winner. Oh boy. I don't qualify. Be careful. I feel like she's much more experienced than I am. The softballs were earlier in the show and now you're getting the hard balls for the final one. All right. Well, what are you, I'm not even good. I don't know if you have any questions for me, perhaps I have questions for you, or if you have a tip or an advice for a videographer, what do you have in mind? I'm so impressed with you, Misha. I love this conversation. I'd love to take you up on the offer for video. I hope people realize in business how important the video aspect is. And for you to offer that to people that call you on the HowlApp, which I love that idea, to take you up on that is just brilliant and so vital. And I would love to do that because in any industry you're in, it's so great when you can show people you in action. So I love what you do, Misha. I love your expertise of having the couples whisper something inappropriate in their ear and bring out those special smiles and moments. I mean, that's all so brilliant. So I think you're fantastic. And I wanted to say one, yes, I'd love to see you up on your offer. And two, what is the best piece of advice you ever got when you started your business and were wondering, can I, could I, should I? Well, I'd say the advice that Jason gave me at that Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, you know, I needed to niche down. I was doing too many things and I was becoming a master of none. And once I decided that shooting weddings and talking to couples is something I want to concentrate on, I'd say slowly but truly my business started going up there and to the level where I'm at right now. And right now I actually do have a bit of extra time here and there to concentrate on other side projects. Like I would do real estate during the week or I would meet up to do a lifestyle photo or video shoot for people like you who are also trying to grow their business presence or go to a restaurant and shoot a free video for that restaurant. So I do have a bit more time to do fun projects like this. And also sometimes I do lots of talking and it's nice to do different kind of projects which doesn't require me to chat to people and I can just be on my own, do my own thing, enjoy good food. And because it does take a lot out of you to constantly talk to people, guide people, post people. So I'd say niche down is one of the bigger challenges that people experience. They have shiny object syndrome. They just try too many things and they never become an expert in the fields. But yeah, there are hundreds of other advices I can give, but this is the one that you can give straight on. Thank you. That's really good advice. And Jason gave you great advice, Misha, because you know what, that's what happens. When people can see, wow, how good you are at your niche, then other people will come along and say, hey, can you do my shoot? I'm an actor. I need some head shots. Because they already like the work you're doing and they see you're great at that. And they say, wow, could you do my portfolio shot for my business? Would you do a video? So Jason, brilliant, great, great advice. I tell people all the time with their shows and their podcasts, niche it down, talk to a specific audience, and then other people will come along and love it too. But when you're niched down, you get more customers and faster as well. And I do that with my hairdressers. I watch, I look at their before and after pictures on Instagram. You could have your whole portfolio there. And then I may not need all the purples and pinks and all the fun things they're doing, but I see how good they are at that. I'm like, of course, certainly they could do my hair. They're much easier, but I love their style. So that's great. Well, I'm going to call you again on the owl app. I just encourage everybody to get on this owl app because look at the people we made. Jason and Danielle, you guys are amazing. I adore you guys. And I'm here for you anytime. You should keep up the great work. And I'm going to connect with you because I hope everybody takes advantage of your videography for their business and get a great headshot for social media. We absolutely need great headshots from you for our social media. Nothing worse than a bad profile picture. Well, there's some things that can be worse, but that's a good start. I'll be waiting for your message and yeah, we'll connect and let it happen. Look at that. Another example of successful networking right here, connecting people. That's what Jason and Danielle do. Thanks to your app. It would be pretty much impossible for me to connect with this lady if not for you. It's so interesting when you could just have people at your fingertips to connect with and then what it leads to after the first initial connection, right? It's no different than in-person networking. You meet one person and then they push you to another. And here we have someone in Atlanta and then all of a sudden it's a quick call and then all of a sudden it could blossom to other opportunities where she has a client that's in South Florida that's getting married. And then she pushes, Hey, I'll meet you. It's that simple, but it's done at ease. And it makes these uncomfortable conversations comfortable because people are saying, Hey, call me. I'm available. Where other times you're at a networking event and you're like, do I want to walk over to them? It's uncomfortable, but it's an audio conversation, super simple. And they start at only 10 minutes and the prices are reasonable. So worst case scenario, you could say, Oh, we got to run two minutes, three minutes. If you're not feeling the conversation, you can't do that in person. How many times I've been stuck at the bar and you just can't, you can't get away. Like you can't just leave the event. You're there to meet other people with owl. You, you can kind of slip, slip away. And then, and then of course you get the deny button. If you don't want to speak with an individual and they call you in the, in the, in the future, just a deny, right? At the end of the day, it's, it's up to you what you want to make of the platform. So you can be in your pajamas. You can, you can, you can be in a hot tub. You can be at the beach, you can be at the pool, you can do it anywhere you want. One of the things I really love about the LF2 is I love, it takes away the fear of, should I pick up the phone and call? What if they have time? I don't want to interrupt Jason. He's a busy man. If it says live and it's flashing live, that's Jason and anybody on the app saying, Hey, I'm available. Call me. Oh, it's so much fun. And it takes out that whole, Oh my gosh, I need to talk to so-and-so. Or I'd love to reach out to somebody, but I don't want to bother them. You're not bothering them if the light is green. And even just taking the question away of, should I text them? What should I say? Like we talked about earlier, the tone, like your tone is so important over text. Sometimes miscommunication happens because, you know, you just can't tell from the words on the screen. So just being able to be direct and communicate with someone instantly, as opposed to two, like waiting for a DM, are they going to answer me? It's just so much nicer. And sometimes the people you're trying to get in touch with on social media, then you, you meet them in person on zoom or on a call. And you're like, wait, I wouldn't have tried this hard. Right. They're not the people you want, you know, around you. They don't show up. They ghost you. They're late all the time. And, or they're just misrepresenting themselves. Right. Online. It's very easy to act bigger than you are or more unique because someone else is writing your post for you. Right. And then someone gets online. You're like, wait, this is not who I thought. And with owl, you kind of get to that quicker. And you mentioned it earlier on the show. It's like some of the, the, the, the best clients don't have big followings. Right. And I look at my podcast, a lot of entrepreneurs have very small followings. Everyone judges everybody on follow account, but, but that's not the case. Many people in their fifties, sixties do not care at all about social media. And they may have a LinkedIn profile, like thousand, 2000, but the genuine connections and maybe they have a few hundred on Instagram. You see that often, right? That's not their focus. And they have a few thousand friends on Facebook. So I think people judge people too often and, and then they chase the followers. And then the people who have big followers, they're actually paying the ass. Right. They end up, you know, being the ones, no showing you canceling. They don't value your time because they have a whole incoming amount of messages coming in and like, Oh, I'll just jump on a meeting with somebody else. Right. So I do think you have to be extremely careful if you're judging everybody on followers at the end of the day. Thank you guys so much. This has been wonderful. I will see you all over on the owl app. Yes, ma'am. Take care. Misha, how was your experience? That was the first time taking three inbound calls. Tell the audience what it felt like. It was amazing. Highly recommend the app. I was looking for an opportunity to share my knowledge. I do host consultations, but it does require lots of effort to bring it out in the world. And this app just makes it so much easier. So if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner, or if you're just in a business and you have the knowledge and the experience that you don't mind sharing with people and actually are enthused about this opportunity, definitely sign up. And I think it's not a reasonable price. You said it's reasonably priced. I think it's really cheap because I went, like I said, I paid 3k to a guy to teach me how to run my business, my wedding business. Here in 10 minutes, you got an advice worth hundreds of dollars. Hundreds. So I think eventually you need to raise your prices, Jason, eventually. I'm $99 a 10 minutes. I'm not cheap on the platform, but we're new. So more people recognize that there isn't enough demand to charge extreme amounts because again, every other brand new platform, like someone has to sign in, create a profile, and there's more friction. So more people are leaving their price a bit lower than normal. But when we get larger with hundreds of thousands of users, of course, then people will increase. So being an early adopter is huge right now because all these people are welcoming you, but one day they're not. So absolutely. That's exactly what you're doing. What I was telling earlier in the program, you're offering something of value for a very low price, if not for free. And then more and more people sign up. They see the value and eventually your company grows. So this is another example of this strategy working. If you have something of value to give, give it. And then people will sign up. People get in touch with you. And once again, this is an amazing tool. Cool. Well, thanks again for joining us on the OWL podcast. Everyone listening out there, if you want to be on this podcast, of course, reach out to us through the DMs. And of course, reach out to Misha on the OWL app. Post-production for the OWL podcast is done with care by Ocean Tree Creative.