Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gregg ‘Mack’ McPhedrain. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gregg ‘Mack’, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Well in October 2019 I was working with National clients, ESPN, Home Depot, Octogon Productions out of Georgia USA, NCAA teams and colleges graduates and teachers across Texas. Larger companies and group projects were a ‘thing’ for me. I was getting known for these types of shoots. Then POOF! The COVID came along and screwed up a five-year success story where I had national clients calling ‘me’. All the gatherings I was doing dried up overnight. Once the masking and work at home models started it wasn’t changing my model, it was changing my targeted clients. My goal was to work with great Texans their families and businesses. The current groups of clients were working at home. And all business events were cancelled for the next who knew how long. What markets am I seeing request work and where?

I am someone who can roll with situational changes, pandemics, and change. I whine about it but if change was going to keep me working whine away! I’m an ex-medic and art director, I was taught critical thinking and problem solving. And the importance of getting it right.
I was taught to work with corporate leaders and have as well as working with hospitals Drs and nurses. I come with goals, the ability to achieve those goals and a work ethic I didn’t want to change careers.

In addition to recognizing my company’s needs and income gap, I became an essential worker and started delivering groceries and food all over Travis County Texas and some of Hayes County. This was simple math I needed more money coming in while I worked on MackphotographyTX and get new client work.

I considered shutting down but, I wasn’t buying the covid hype the hospital staff I knew wasn’t backing up the news media. My buddies still working the job were in touch saying yes we’re at 75% in the ICU – it’s Tuesday. That translates to the laymen and laywomen ICUs don’t have that many beds and need to be 75% to 80%+ EVERYDAY to be making money for the hospital. Agree disagree, I had decided I was ready willing and going to work through the ‘pandemic’ instead of not working.

I’m a photographer I take photos. The only way to expand my company was to expand my services.
I identified markets I wasn’t active in. I changed my marketing to accomodate these new markets and new offerings. In the end I added; gender reveal shoots, newborns, and kids’ photography, engagement photography, couples’ photography and merchandising photography for people selling items during covid.

I even landed a couple corporate repeat clients during covid because I’d shoot without masks. It was Texas. One group was doing promotional shoots for their supplement company. I shot them 4-5 times through COVID.

To sum it up, COVID affected my business model financially, everyone I think can say that to some degree. In reality, my business model was changed to allow for a larger pool of clients. The situation created by COVID made me push myself expand my business clientele at a very accelerated rate in order to survive. For a minute during Covid, sure, I needed 3 jobs to get through but I’m better off now, the company has new job samples, I’m a stronger photographer, and waiting to work with clients who want to smile for me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Well, I’m a Canadian born Art Director and graduate of College for Creative Studies Detroit. I spent the mid 90’s bouncing jobs from advertising, automotive political & clothing design. I worked on the first Ford Interactive kiosks used for the North American Auto Show 1994. I was the only person on the design team asked back 2015 to redesign the interface. True. I’ve Photographed Carl Cox, Ritchie Hawtin, John Aquaviva, 100s of others. I turned John Aquaviva and Scan7 into bobbleheads. True
I’ve retouched a photo of a nun up for Sainthood for the Odor of Sanctity in San Antonio Texas. True.

1999-2001 I was taking photos of Detroit DJs and DJs from around the world. and www.spinners.tv North America’s first website dedicated to Techno based in Detroit. Partnered with the late Jonty Adderly SKRUFFF.

2002-2006 Detroit Trading Card Company opened bought out spinners.tv and their inventory hired me to run event management. They paid for my connections. The company wanted to turn DJs into a playing card game. Both physical cards and ‘digital cards were made’. Using my photography there was a DEMF set, Detroit set, the godfathers set, hand painted artwork for the playing cards and more. It was a great advance for my photography skills.

2006-2008 – nothing – I went to med school to become a paramedic. I wanted job security and a steady income to pay for my ideas and all the new equipment I dreamt of.
2010-2015 New Mexico shooting everything all over the state from Mesa’s to model photography for clothing companies. I landed a job shooting cars for Larry H Miller Jeep Dodge Eagle, & their Hyundai lots. I paid for med school with this job and some political side work.

2015-2022 I was located in Central Texas. I shot BBQ Competitions, I shot portrait photography and college & sports show photography to commercial and for Texan family photography my range increased and in 2022 I’ve taken it all to Florida.

What am I proud of?

Careerwise, I got to work with.
-ESPN Gameday
-Have national sports races call me to work with them
-ABQt competition – 44,000+ online votes for this competition.
-Hired by Saxton Horne Communications (Sandy Utah) to run photography in Albuquerque for multiple lots.
-Presbyterian ER OR and NICU
=Shot Dennis Bottoms (banjo player Alabama and Jerry Reed)
-Grateful, for every Texan family I worked with. Thank you for sharing some time with me.

Charity work
– brought Cranksgiving to New Mexico 2012-2013 An alley cat food drive started in New York. We were 21st city to join. There are currently 100’s of cities each year that run this race.
– 2015 helped raise 300k for the ABQ biodome (zoo, aquarium, gardens)
– 2021 worked Operation Turkey Austin my buddies and I smoked enough turkey to feed 44,000 people.

My commercial work is your story, your town, your product, your smile, that moment. My personnel photography work is the world from my perspective. Windmills, cracks in life, and nature are three favorite subjects.

On the job, working with me you’ll find; I talk with you, so you’ll relax and be comfortable and we can get to know each other. I listen, to ensure your goals are being met the day of the shoot. I walk with you, so you’ll forget I’m there and smile naturally.

I love taking photos and look forward to working with any company, client or family.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I shoot wildflowers and BBQ on the side. It’s not lucrative but is relaxing and a chance to travel. I learned a long time ago online presence is a numbers game.
Buying them isn’t going to get you an audience, it’s going to get you bots. Some accounts are ok with that. I’m into being hired and getting my photography exposure. I know from online data I’ve had my work seen in Sri Lanka, I’ve never been. Paris, Geneva, sure, Barbados, a lovely island.

The main way I get my account up and running and attract people to my page is to find other people with likes like mine. That statement seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? But you don’t want them to have cooking in common with you if it’s a flower page. You want like 3-5 very on point similarities. You’re looking for a way to bring them back after they’ve seen your page website or social media account. This is true for your first 1000+ followers if you want to grow with real followers

An audience vs a follower is different. I have 500 bot accounts for Onlyfan people on my photography Instagram – but I have 1000+ that are an audience. I get rid of the fake accounts asap but they always come back for more.

Once my first 500 audience accounts follow me, they then start to have 10-100+ people in common with me allowing people with similar interests to be exposed to me and ‘organically’ grow my audience. The first 1000 is the roughest. Then I want to notice their followers count, how many people follow them. I want people with as many people as me or more. I use this model to obtain the first 2000 people.

Throughout this process, you want to tag people you meet, businesses you work with, and projects where allowable. Your hashtagging matters. Organically grown social media is where you can show; where people are looking at you from, how many and at what. You want this to be real data.

Those are some pointers on how I’ve landed 1000 of followers on my social media accounts,

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I’ve not had many partners and none that worked out as well as Dan Schwartz. In business our love of problem solving and the interactive technology from 1993-1998 we worked together and for a minute partnered up directly in an LLC. Digital Interactive Service Corp.

Dan and I met while I was finishing up my art director degree at CCS. He was a brilliant programmer, super nerd to be more precise. Whereas I was a brilliant art director who didn’t mind telling 14 Ford middle managers no. Together we would work together for 5 years. We would teach doctors to do surgery with our programming and 3d animation. I would find my love of med tech work and find a spark woke up during that project. Together we ‘loved’ the problem solving and technology we could use to bring our jobs to life.

We started off working for a con man and his wife, Tom McFee owners of Multidynamics. They weren’t that bad but they fudged numbers and didn’t always pay on time lolol. In the beginning, Dan interviewed me for the intern job, tested photoshop key skills, vs pulldown menus, Speed mattered. This was 1993 and there wasn’t redo in photoshop yet. The company was one three interactive design companies in the state at the time. The platform Interactive CD-I was touchscreen video w/ basic interfaces. 28 color screen limitations for the interface designs. Creativity with limitations.

The company hired me after college, and we did the total of 28 projects. For companies like FORD, Durr, Ross Roy, and others. All of the auto companies including BMW Ford and Chrysler. When it failed in early 1995 Dan and I didn’t immediately partner up. He went to work for another company in Canada, I continued to find work on my own for pretty much everyone doing interactive design. I was a rare commodity, an art director for interactive.

By fall 1995 Dan and I had partnered on a couple projects. We went to work together when I landed the Beaumont hospital Intermittent catheterization project. Seven hours of video would become an interactive project to train doctors. We were kings for about three years. He got married and we dissolved the partnership.

Contact Info:

• Website: mackphotographyfl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mackphotographyfl_tx/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcphedrain-gregg-a59570243/