We recently connected with Grant Goodwin and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Grant, thanks for joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?
I have noticed that asking friends and family to book with me for a photoshoot is a huge struggle, especially when they do not come from a background that understands art or running your own business. Most of the time, I am asked for a discount or expected to be doing it for free. I have explained an endless amount of times that even though I am family, they are still hiring me for a service and I should be compensated for that service. It also supports me in terms of paying my bills, making up for buying new equipment if needed, and whatever falls in between. Being hired by my friends and family is not the only thing I view as support. It also means the world to me to have something as simple as sharing my posts to their stories, sharing them, and the other tasks that allow someone’s post to be relevant on the algorithm nowadays. I can confidently say that they also lack in that area, and they do not understand the importance of sharing posts on social media rather than just liking and commenting.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Grant and I am a 22 going on 23 year old photographer in Georgia. I received my first camera at the age of 13 because my mom had a Canon Rebel T3 collecting dust on the shelf, so I asked if I could have it. My imaginary younger self had so many plans for this camera, and at the time, I actually wanted to make my own short horror films and make music videos to my favorite songs with my friends. I tried it out, and slowly but surely, I started to realize that video was not for me and I started taking pictures. I immediately fell in love with the art and have not stopped since. This journey has been a long, struggling process, but along the way I have learned so much and continue to get better every day. I have found my niche in creative, portrait photography. I like to provide my clients with the photos they hired me to capture, but I always find a way to express my creativity in some way during the shoot. Over the past two years, I have also gotten into makeup and started doing that for clients which I’ve noticed makes them more comfortable when we get to shooting.
I like to make people feel beautiful and confident in themselves before and during shooting. I always tell the same stories about how everyone is always shy at first, but use jokes and laughs to make the session as enjoyable and personable as possible. My job has allowed me to meet and connect with so many amazing people, and I could not ask for anything more.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Building an audience on social media can be extremely difficult. With the constant updates to how platforms perform, the algorithm tips and tricks, and overall timeline switches, it is not at easy as it used to be. Nowadays, it is so important to constantly keep your social media up to date with your day to day life. You should be posting consistently, sharing what’s going on with you on your stories, and engaging with your audience. I have found that these three things have shown great results. I definitely think it used to be a lot easier to grow a couple of years ago compared to now.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
As much as I want to say Instagram, it unfortunately is not the case. Facebook has actually been a great platform to market myself and find new clientele. I have not always been the biggest fan of Facebook because I was one of those people that saw it as “for old people.” As I’ve started to use it a bit more, I’ve noticed that you just have to find your people. They have great groups and communities that you can join that provide entrepreneurial advice, clients can look for photographers for their big days, and it makes it easy to find all you need in one place. Reach out to people! You don’t have to always let things come to you. Chase it!
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