We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nick Friesen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nick below.

Nick, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’ve been a photographer for over 10 years now. I started off shooting for fun and soon began shooting families, headshots, and eventually weddings. In 2016 I discovered a photography training on facial expressions, and I was hooked. The expressions we show have a huge impact on how we are perceived, and this is even more important when posing for photos.

I started practicing this coaching with friends and the headshots came out amazing. It turned out that coaching people on how to look confident, happy, mysterious, or a mix of the three would lead us to start the company that we’re so excited about today.

One of the photoshoots I did was with my now co-founder, Shane White. We shot some headshots in my studio, went flying in his Cessna, and shot photos around town. After I edited through the photos, Shane decided to upload these photos to his online dating profiles. This wasn’t even my intention when taking the photos—but he was actively dating, so he tried it out. He reported back that the results were overwhelming, and he soon started to go on way more dates.

A couple of years later, Shane had moved to Texas and met his now wife online and messaged me with a crazy idea that we should shoot photos for men across the US to help them with their online dating profiles.

We designed a website and proof of concept, and I started flying into Texas to shoot photos for guys. Shane handled the tech and automation side of things, and I handled the photography and editing. We initially had no idea what we were doing, or if it would work. We just knew that Shane had gotten way more matches, and this had to work for other guys, too.

The proof of concept of this business came in waves. Initially, we heard how many clients were getting more matches that turned into more dates that turned into relationships. A year or two in, we started to see engagements and even a few marriages.

At the beginning, there weren’t many companies doing what we were doing. With the rise in online dating in recent years, it seems like many photographers are trying to capitalize by saying they offer the same.

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

I’m Nick Friesen, and I co-founded The Match Artist in 2018. We do online dating photography and help high-value men go on better dates through intriguing photography and online dating.

I got into photography back in college after being inspired by a photographer friend. I dove in and began shooting familes, headshots, and weddings.

I am most proud of the dates, relationships, and marriages we’ve had a part in creating through the photos we’ve taken. I’m proud of the photographers on our team helping us work with more guys and create artistic and accurate images of those we work with. We take hiring seriously and our photographers are some of the best out there—both as people and artists.

For those reading about us, we want to help people go on more and better dates through online dating. It’s really difficult to date in 2024 as people become more online-dependent. It’s hard to stand out on dating apps and connect with the right people without good photos. Our goal is to capture guys in their best light in a genuine, accurate way. We get so much joy from seeing people happy with their life partner, and I believe online dating is the best potential for many people.

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

My background is in music and english in terms of college, so entrepreunership was new to me when we started The Match Artist. Over the past six years, I’ve learned some of the core tenets of being an entrepreneur, and it’s been a lot of fun.

In terms of building our reputation, building a solid collection of case studies on our website has been one of the best things we’ve done to build trust in our market. We sat down with a few guys with success stories for a brief interview about where they were at before working with us and how their dating life has changed since.

Along with the video interview, we added before and after photos, text updates they shared with us, and we even did a couple’s photoshoot with them if they were in a committed relationship.

We even started an offshoot company called The Wedding Artist to tell the stories of clients that met as a result of the photos we took at The Match Artist. I don’t do The Match Artist shoots much anymore, but my wife and I do Wedding Artist shoots with couples frequently, and it’s been a blast.

After adding these, we started to get a lot of traffic to the page, and our sales went up dramatically. We started sending the case studies to clients, and that ultimately helped our reputation and credibility.

Another priority of ours is portraying guys in an honest way. Online dating can be very superficial, and we want to help guys showcase who they are, not a manufactured version of themselves. We highlight their best features and help them look confident and approachable without comprimising who they are. A lot of dating photography is quick and casual. While that’s okay for some, we’re more concerned with helping create lasting relationships and life partners.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I’ve found that you can keep the best photographers in the world around by just truly caring about them and where they’re at in life. From the first person we hired, I’ve really tried to see them as a friend that I want the best for. There are a ton of manangerial styles, and I think my co-founder balances me out, but I will always be checking in to see how someone’s week is going.

Our photographers’ schedules are so hectic that we don’t have one-on-one chats at a set time, so I just call them to catch up when they aren’t at a shoot, and 75% of the call isn’t about work stuff. I’ve found that if I keep these calls consistent and focus on them personally, I don’t have to spend much time on the managerial stuff, because there isn’t anything to correct or reinforce.

There are definitely times where this can backfire, so it might not work for everyone’s business. But in general, it’s worked out really well, and we’ve retained most of the people who work with us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thematchartist.com/ and theweddingartist.com (photography company for couples)
• Instagram: @thematchartist
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasfriesen