Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Josh & Kristan Lepik. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Josh & Kristan, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?

When you think about running a photography business you immediately think of cameras, lenses, lights, camera bags, batteries etc…. A lot of times, new photographers spend a ton of money on all these things hoping it will make them better. We have found education is the best investment for photographers and this advice applies to other businesses as well. Learning business, customer service skills, how to pose clients, how to manage and pay bills is crucial besides learning your craft. There is so much more to running a photography business than just taking photos. We truly believe in continued learning and strive to continue to grow and challenge ourselves to be better than the day before.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are Josh and Kristan Lepik of Lepik Photography, a husband and wife photography and videography duo based in southern Colorado and available worldwide. Collectively we have 40 years experience behind a lens and truly love what we do! Lepik Photography specializes in weddings, events, business and portrait photography ranging from senior/graduation, couples/engagement, family, maternity, golden era/legacy photos. We are celebrating our 13th year in business and have the honor of serving over 1500 clients so far. We believe in capturing true to life with all its beautiful moments through artistic imagery that stand the test of time. We truly believe that every person is beautiful and unique and strive to show others the beauty they offer the world and we make them feel more confident in themselves. We love telling stories through lifestyle photography where we capture precious candid moments as well as posed images. Our style and approach lead to genuine photos with real feelings. We have had the honor of capturing the beginning of life moments all the way through some last moments. This is a trust from our clients that we do not take for granted. We understand the importance of documenting someone’s legacy through portraits and we work extremely hard to accomplish this. We also pride ourselves in being servant leaders and mentors in our local photography community. We help guide other photographers just starting out and we believe in community over competition. Photography is such an amazing gift and if you are able to provide this gift to others in a unique way we are all for others learning the craft.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

This is a great question. Photography is honestly such a saturated market. Hop on any Facebook page and ask for a local photographer and you will be bombarded with 100’s of comments that provide option overload in your local area. You will find photographers starting at $50 and others that charge $1000. There is NO shortage of photographers in every city.

Standing out from the others and building a name that your community can trust takes time and consistency. For us this journey has been happening for well over a decade. We focus on the experience we provide, consistent beautiful images, and believe in transparency to ensure that our community sees the same version of us online, in public and in private. We take care of our customers from start to finish. If our clients have questions or experience even better opportunity we strive to assist any way we can to ensure a seamless experience.

We also believe in giving back to our community and host free events and have annual giveaways that allow us to give back. Each year we also offer a “pay what you can” Kindergarten mini day, this offers an opportunity for families to meet and get to know us as well as get portraits of their child graduating from kindergarten. These events not only provide a way to give back to our amazing community but also helps foster and builds trust and credibility to a broader audience.

We also focus on working with and supporting other local businesses. Not only does this help broaden our network and builds strong ties within our community as their clients and followers then see our work and immediately have a trust in us because of their relationship with that other business. It really is about community serving community. When you add up all these little moments your reputation continues to grow in the right direction. Taking care of your customers, taking care of your community and providing a consistently amazing experience leads us to a reputation that cannot be beat.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Word of mouth. It sounds silly but in this day and age everyone feels like they are being sold too. There are ads all around us. Billboards, commercials and even a video on the internet is just a way to sell to us. We cannot count how many times we were researching something online, found a video for our exact needs only to realize that the person in the video was just selling a product. We feel defeated and lied too. Mix that with everything that is happening around the world and people are hesitant to book anyone or pay for anything. This is where word of mouth comes in. If I ask a friend or family member for a recommendation, there is a high chance I will take their advice.

If photography it takes time to also build momentum. You start off with one client. They tell two people. Those two people book you and they tell two, and so on which empowers us to continue to grow and grow. After enough time and if you are good at what you do you eventually have clients coming to you all the time. But again, it takes time, dedication and consistency. We see so many new photographers get burned out when starting out because photography is a lot more business than it is photography. Mix that, with them not taking the time to grow and they eventually quit the industry. Naturally people compare their worst to other’s best. They are only getting 1-2 bookings a month or every few months and they see others who are getting 1-2 a week. It is hard. They want the reward or instant success without putting in the work. A big part of why we are where we are is because we put in the time. We grew our clients, we treated them right, we are involved in our community, we provide an amazing customer experience in addition to delivering beautiful images.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lepikphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lepikphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LepikPhotography
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lepikphotography/

Image Credits

Images taken and provided by Lepik Photography