We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyle Goldie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kyle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

The 7 and 8-figure educators out there are incredibly talented at marketing themselves. Many of them (not all, of course) are equally amazing at giving their clients/members the things that they “want.” Where I think more educators, consultants, coaches, and course creators need to get better at – is by equally giving the people paying money to learn the things they also *need*.

As an example, I primarily coach wedding, elopement and portrait photographers to get more website traffic, more leads in their inbox, and more bookings on their calendar. To do that, most photographers come to me because they want help with their SEO. But I am incredibly clear with them before they even enroll that although I can help them with their SEO, that same desire to rank higher on Google won’t feel like it’s working that well without improved conversion rates on their website. After all, in today’s day-and-age, one ranking factor is the user experience metrics of a website domain, and the pages within it.

When photographers enroll into my education program (https://kylegoldie.com/photography-business-coach/), they not only get what they want – but also the things they need.

SEO, sure. But also help for their website conversion, as well as the rest – mindset, time management, copywriting/messaging, social media, client communication, automation, systems, pricing, sales and so much more.

In short, give them what they need, not just what they want.

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?

It’s a long story, but I will do my best to be brief. In 2007, I graduated with my Bachelors of Business Management. In 2008, I worked as a Google Ads manager for an advertising agency – and this is where I learned keyword research, tracking data, and making decisions based on math – nothing else.

I quickly realized I didn’t like being micromanaged by others, and equally being undervalued, so I quit and took my dad’s camera and head into the mountains to photograph landscapes. That’s where I learned composition, color, contrast, weather forecasting, patience, and the tenacity to “do what it takes.”

Then I got into photographing people for a challenge. And shortly thereafter, started teaching workshops in studio, then on location, then that led me down the path of fashion photography.

Over time, the world of fashion photography led me to meeting my wife, and that led us to setting up roots (again) in the PNW. And at that time, pivoting to weddings, elopements and portraits instead of the glam fashion world in LA.

And over a 15 year career as a photographer, that led me into then educating other photographers with how I built my brand across multiple niches strategically.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

At the start of my career, I wanted fashion clients, but with where I was living – that was nearly impossible because there was really only a small handful of opportunities with the local market. I had to get to LA to make this happen if I was serious about it. So, with the little money I had (very, very little) – I took the few hundred dollars in my bank account, booked a trip to LA, and paid for my return trip with photographing models for their portfolios. And over time, it ended up being roughly 1 trip to LA per month for about 36 straight months until I was finally working with larger commercial and editorial clients. To truly make it in any niche, you must persevere, put in the work, put in the effort, and not give up.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

You’re not the best. You simply may be the best where you are. And there’s always room for growth. Remove your ego, have some humility, and get a coach to help you. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Your ego will only slow you down.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kylegoldie.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kylegoldie
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/rockstargrowth