Pye Jirsa and his 2 partners run a photography studio in Los Angeles, California. LinandJirsa.com and SLRLounge.com.
1:00 – how Pye & his partners started their photography studio. They weren’t originally photographers, but fell into it accidentally when a client needed some photos.
5:00 – Pye talks about how he built up his photography skills, the shoots he does just to build skills, and how many photographers don’t do this.
8:30 – the team booked gigs off of Craigslist for free or $50 just to build their skills. Pye talks about how they grew their skills by doing these free gigs.
10:30 – SLR Lounge & Lin & Jirsa photography have about 20 people working for them. They shot 300+ weddings and portrait sessions in 2014. Pye charges $8,000 minimum for a wedding day shoot, and he talks about how he got to that number. How beginning artists undermine their own credibility by trying to charge too much.
18:30 – how Pye & the team created additional income streams from their art, and how SLR Lounge came into being.
25:00 – a lot of artists try to run more than one business at a time. This is very difficult to do, and needs to be handled strategically. Unless you have some sort of specific advantage, you can’t build more than one business at a time.
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awesome interview .. great job guys
Nice clear and to the point, I like the new approach with these new Podcasts.I look forward to hearing more in the future.
JamesAbellArt Thanks James!
ChristopherLin Thanks man!
Enjoyed this. Exactly our problem. How to focus on one thing. Nice to hear your take. Thanks for sharing!
Love the new approach, clear, concise, no puppets or jingles.. Just content! Yaay!
Well, I for one will miss Melissa’s creative input. As you know, many artists’ personalities naturally shy away from business podcasts due their conventional approach. Without the cheery ukelele singing (and yes, the puppet) I’m not so sure you would’ve gotten my initial attention. If your main market is more of the “regular joe” type, I understand the shift, as you do want to run a successful business model, yourself. But I hope you’ll keep an open mind for future guests, as Antrese Wood from the Savvy Painter podcast has done. I listen to you both, and have learned a lot. Thanks.
Thanks for the feedback Laura. I do think Melissa brought a lot to the podcast, and we’re going to be having her back regularly. If you have suggestions for guests I’m all ears.
I found it very encouraging to hear that they had many of the same problems and thoughts that I currently do. Focusing on ONE thing is very hard to do, when I’ve trained myself to do so many. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Matt! Can you continue making your other stuff while focusing on selling just one thing? Like how Pye mentioned that he does experimental shoots occasionally?
I like the pricing structure Pye uses and how he raises his prices. I like his story from starting out to how he got to where he is. It takes time, patience and lots of work. I will miss Melissa, too, but everything changes and I welcome the new format. Nice to know she will be on regularly.
Glad you’re staying with us Amy!
It is interesting to follow new ideas.looking forward to hear new ideas.
Good luck.
Lida van Bers
LOVE the new format. The puppet and ukulele made me cringe so I usually skipped that to get to the interviews. Yes to podcast.
🙂
Thank you Pye and Cory for doing this! I got so much out of this because Pye makes perfect sense. Very generous of you both.
Well, I’m sure he would appreciate the fact that you think he’s perfect. 😉
Great podcast. So happy with the transition to audio! Pye had really good, sensible advice. I had no idea about Pharrell, wouldn’t that be awesome.
I learned a lot from this episode. I thought it was interesting to hear the way Pye increased his prices, especially since all advice I’d heard or read from professional photographers as I was starting my business warned you NEVER to start so low. Typical pricing advice suggests that you’ll have to build your business from scratch if you don’t price yourself right, because your cheap customers will not stay with you when your prices grow. But because he did it so gradually it worked out – it seems so simple, so now I’m saying “duh” but I never thought about it that way.
On the topic of doing multiple art forms I think it’s possible to juggle it all if all of your work goes towards one cause. Well at least I hope it’s possible because, although I’m mainly a photographer, I want to paint, and I want to write, and I want to podcast. My plan is to target all of my work to people who are passionate about animal rescue – not all of my work will be of animals, but all of my work will benefit animals so I think it’ll be ok.
Just like I think Melissa does a fantastic job of juggling all of her creative pursuits, she is her brand, and her brand is all about being creative and helping creatives create. Most of her work is of interest to me because it all relates back to the creative process.
I think doing multiple creative things CAN work, especially if you’re a solopreneur.
Hi Cory! I had an issue with the first podcast and with this one as well, almost in the end it stops and I just can’t listen to the end. I tried to download but got error too, any clue if it’s only with me? Thanks so much!
No problems on my end Tobias. Try refreshing your browser cache and trying again.
Hey! Nice Interview! I was asking myself, what Pye means with starting of with 500 $… Does he mean like 500$ for the entire Wedding Day or…??! Thank you! 🙂
An awesome podcast. Hearing from the masters themselves is quite an experience!