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

Alright, Makenna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

When covid first hit, like many people I was staying home and was feeling like I needed something to do to keep my mind occupied. One day, I decided to dust off my old camera equipment and start photographing things around my house. I realized that my favorite subjects to capture were my cats. I loved how their beauty showed up on camera, and how much they looked like majestic little lions. At first was just posting their images to my own personal social media accounts, but was encouraged by family and friends to share my work publicly. So, I created social media pages for my cats that was slowly gaining some attention. Once we were able to leave our houses again, I started to get requests from other people to photograph their cats. Then once I started sharing those images online, I rapidly blew up on social media and gained 100k followers. I quickly realized that there was a huge market for cat photography and studio cat photography but not very many photographers where doing it, so thats when I started my business. So many people consider their pets to be their own family and want a photographer whose not only skilled in taking images, but also someone who knows and understands cats. Since I am a huge cat lover and cat parent myself, I am so happy I am able to capture life long memories for like minded people.

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

I studied film photography for about 3 years in school before I got a bachelors degree in film and television, Ive always loved telling visual stories even from a young age. But I also really love cats, so much so, all of my free time is spent learning and spending time with cats. Since Colorado is such a dog heavy state, most pet photographers only work with dogs and understand dog behavior very well, but theres not many photographers here who understand and solely work with cats. Because cats and dogs are such different animals, different tactics must be taken to get the best quality images. I know how to get a cat to pose without them feeling like they are doing something they don’t want, I know how to give a cat a stress free session. All of my sessions are specifically tailored to every cats need, because I really have seen it all when it comes to cats and photography.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

Before I blew up on social media, I was paying for targeted ads that were not really working. After months of advertising, I didn’t get any clients. During this time, I was also making silly videos on tiktok and instrgam about my cats. One day, I decided to take a risk and rotate the camera from my cats and onto me and my cat photography business, and immediately I got over a million views, the next video was over two million, then four million, then all the way up to 10 million views. Because of those videos, I now have more clients then I could have ever imagined and it as done more for my business than any other forms of marketing.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My social media posts are not only about photography, I also make videos about being a cat owner that I know other cat owners can relate to. I love hearing all of the stories about how people live with their cats, how they take care of their cats, and how their cats came into their lives. I think it makes my business more than just a business. My clients often tell me that their favorite posts of mine are not business related at all, because they love that they can see someone make relatable content as well as photography content.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.purfectpose.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purfectpose/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PurfectPose
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.cattams.family

Image Credits
Makenna Mackey