The Pet Photographers' Journal

Not long ago, Stacey Sherman's pet photography business still felt like a hobby. It wasn't the real, paying business she wanted, and it frustrated her. A self-described procrastinator who struggled hugely with confidence. Today she's opening her second studio.
In this episode, Ina sits down with Stacey Sherman of BarkHop Studio, a founding member of the Consistent Bookings Mastermind, for an honest client story. Stacey shares what actually shifted for her: how she found the confidence to back herself and negotiate, how she started taking consistent action instead of putting things off, and how she built marketing she can turn on and off, including the community events that now bring her whole town out. If you know the marketing you should be doing to grow your pet photography business but keep putting it off, this one's for you.
Key takeaways
You don't need more information, you need to see it made real. As a visual learner, what unlocked Stacey was seeing Ina's actual assets, not another abstract course.
Your community events are marketing. Strut Your Mutt drew 400 people, 200 dogs and 30-plus vendors, and built partnerships that market her for free.
A campaign doesn't have to be a big scary thing. Build it once, keep the assets, tweak and repeat.
Confidence is the real product. From imposter syndrome to a second studio, a VA and 19 booked sessions. Her two words: motivation and confidence.
Turn the marketing tap on and off. A repeatable system lets you switch it on for bookings and pause it when life needs you.

One thing to try this week
Look at the events you're already doing and write down which ones are actually marketing. Get next quarter's one repeatable event onto your calendar now, before you're scrambling to pull it together.
About Stacey
Stacey Sherman is the photographer behind BarkHop Studio, a studio pet photography business she has built over two and a half years. A former family photographer, she found her way to pet work through fostering and rescue, with a second studio on the way. She is a founding member of Ina's Consistent Bookings Mastermind.
Connect with Stacey
Website: http://barkhopstudio.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/barkhopstudio
Work with me in the Mastermind
Stacey's story is exactly what the Mastermind is built for. The Consistent Bookings Mastermind is open for enrolment: a group coaching container focused on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system, with full support across pricing, sales and mindset. inajphotography.com.au/mastermind
Not ready yet? Start with the Free Consistent Bookings Audit: inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit
💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free)
Join the free community on Skool
✨ Want to Be Coached Live? (Off the Record)
Drop a voice note or DM on Instagram (@inaj.thepetphotoceo), first name or anonymous.
📲 Connect with Ina
Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo · Email: ina@inajphotography.com · Mentoring & Coaching

If you've ever felt like you're posting and posting and still staring at an empty calendar, this one's for you.
In this episode I'm sharing a small change to the podcast (more solo episodes, and moving to fortnightly), and why that decision is actually the exact lesson I want to talk about: doing more isn't what gets you booked. Doing the right things, on purpose, is.
I break down the difference between passive marketing (your social media, your blog, your SEO) and active marketing (campaigns that actually create a reason to book), and I walk you through a real campaign I'm running in my own studio right now, Dogs of the Season.
I'm also launching a new segment called Off the Record. If there's something you're stuck on, send me an anonymous voice note and I'll coach you through it on air.
In this episode:
Why posting more often isn't the same as being booked
Passive vs active marketing, and why you need both
The Dogs of the Season campaign, start to finish
How a 12-month marketing calendar lets you plan once and repeat
Why marketing now is what fills your spring and autumn seasons
One active campaign to plan this week

Work with me in the mastermind
The mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focusing on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system along with comprehensive support of your business from pricing, sales, and mindset.
Click here for more info: The Consistent Bookings Mastermind
📲 Connect with Ina
Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo
Drop me a voice note or DM on instagram for the "Off the Record Segment".
Email: ina@inajphotography.com
Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit
Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer

Have you ever scrolled past a shelter dog and thought "that photo doesn't do them justice"? Adam Goldberg had the same thought, and he did something about it.
Adam is the founder of AGold Photos and the creator of Second Shot, a mission-driven adoption photography programme placing professional photographers inside shelters to give animals a real chance at being seen. What started as weekend volunteering has grown into a network spanning five shelters across the US, with a goal of reaching 50 in the next three years.
In this episode, Adam shares the full story of how Second Shot came to life, how the model actually works, and what he's looking for in photographers who want to get involved.
What We Cover
How Adam's photography career started inside a shelter and why he never really left
The transition from shoot-and-burn events to IPS studio and what he learned the hard way
Why he walked away from private clients to focus solely on shelter photography
What a Second Shot session looks like from start to finish, including how he photographs up to 50 animals a week
The three-person system he uses to keep sessions efficient and stress-free for the animals
How brand sponsorships fund the whole programme so shelters get the work for free
What he looks for in associate photographers and what the pilot programme involves
The tools and workflow that make the volume manageable (including AI editing)
Where Second Shot is headed and how you can apply to be part of it

About Adam Goldberg
Adam Goldberg is a professional pet photographer and the founder of AGold Photos, based in Tampa, Florida. He is also the creator of Second Shot, a programme that partners with animal shelters and brands to fund and produce professional photo sessions for adoptable animals. Adam has been photographing shelter animals for 10 years and has raised over $250,000 for animal charities through his work.
Links and Resources Mentioned
Apply to be a Second Shot associate photographer: secondshotpet.com
Adam on Instagram: @agoldphoto
Adam's email: adam@secondshotpet.com
Evoto AI editing software: Use Discount Code ADAM15 for 15% off on annual subscription plans and 20% off on 200 credits pay-as-you-go. Sign up using this link https://link.evoto.ai/goldberg

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective
If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.
Inside, Ina shares:
✨ Practical marketing tips
✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts
✨ Free resources to help you grow
Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.
Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1
✨ Want to Be Coached Live?
Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29
📲 Connect with Ina
Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo
Email: ina@inajphotography.com
Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit
Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer

In one week, it will be a year since I released the very first episode of The Pet Photographers' Journal. I honestly didn't know if I'd still be here doing this. I didn't know if I'd stay consistent. I didn't know if it would matter to anyone.
But here we are. Over 5,000 downloads later, and I get messages from photographers telling me these episodes have genuinely helped their businesses. That means everything.
This episode is a little different. I want to mark the milestone, share some of what's happened in the last twelve months, including some wins from photographers I've worked with, and then get into something practical. Because after a year of working with pet photographers through workshops, one-on-one coaching, and the Consistent Bookings Mastermind, I've seen the same underlying problem show up again and again: inconsistent bookings.
But this problem doesn't always come from the same place. And if you're trying to fix the wrong bottleneck, you'll keep spinning your wheels.
So today I'm walking you through the four bottlenecks I see most often, and how to figure out which one is yours.
A note before we dive in: this episode was recorded during a hard personal time. My dog James was diagnosed with cancer, and stepping back from parts of the business while navigating that has been genuinely tough. I mention it briefly in the episode. Thank you to everyone who reached out with kind messages. It has meant more than I can say.
Resources mentioned:
Take the free Consistent Bookings Audit (takes about 5 minutes, gives you a personalised result) → https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit
Consistent Bookings Mastermind (six-month small group program) → https://www.inajphotography.com.au/consistent-bookings-mastermind
Ep. 9 — Why Your Bookings Are Inconsistent (And It's Not What You Think) → https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mUVzPbNGALeVcKvGUDKlF
S2 Ep. 6 — From Overwhelmed with Marketing to Fully Booked for Spring with Sharon Canovas → https://open.spotify.com/episode/4LC6bhrtoIgx1RCKXG4IYH
S2 Ep. 13 — From Zero Clients to a $9,000 Sale: Yunet's Pet Photography Story → https://open.spotify.com/episode/5C9OWzfPhdsE8x8x3IuXeY

💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective
If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.
Inside, Ina shares:
✨ Practical marketing tips
✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts
✨ Free resources to help you grow
Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.
Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1
✨ Want to Be Coached Live?
Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29
📲 Connect with Ina
Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo
Email: ina@inajphotography.com
Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit
Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer

When Kirstie McConnell found out she was moving back to Australia after six years in Italy, she had six months to prepare. By the time she landed in Melbourne, a city where she knew almost no one professionally, she had 26 sessions already booked. Her first three shoots were four days after arriving home.
In this episode, Ina sits down with Kirstie, one of Australia's original pet photographers and co-host of the now-closed Pet Photographers Club podcast, to unpack exactly how she did it. This is a masterclass in knowing your numbers, building a client system that does the educating for you, and making third party marketing work the way it's supposed to.

Key takeaways:
The client should hear about pricing at least 10 times before they ever sit down at the ordering appointment. The voucher says it, the letter says it, the video says it, the questionnaire says it, the phone call confirms it. By the time they are looking at their photos, no one is surprised.
Third party marketing works when it is genuinely a win for the partner. If they are not distributing your vouchers, the problem is not the system. It is that you have not made it worth their while. Kirstie does commercial shoots, provides wall art for store fit-outs, and makes the whole process require zero effort from the partner.
Sending 80 emails got Kirstie 10 partners. If each of those partners generates 20 clients at a $2,600 average, that is $500,000 in revenue from 80 emails. Do the numbers.
The step most photographers skip is the automated funnel between voucher receipt and first phone call. If clients are not converting, this is usually where the leak is.
Know your capacity and protect it. Kirstie caps at 12 sessions a month because she knows what happens to quality, turnaround time, and her personal life when she pushes past it.
Connect with Kirstie:
Instagram: @classicoportraitsaustralia
Websites:
Classico Portraits Australia: classicoportraits.com.au
Classico Portraits Italy: classicoportraits.com
Resources mentioned:
Wistia (free for a small number of videos): wistia.com
Fillout Forms: fillout.com
Airtable: airtable.com
MailerLite: mailerlite.com
Fundy Wall Designer: for superimposing artwork into client home photos
💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective
If you want to sign up for the workshop, join the Pet Photographers' Collective, it's a free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm.
Inside, Ina shares:
✨ Practical marketing tips
✨ Business lessons and mindset shifts
✨ Free resources to help you grow
Connect with other photographers who get it and start creating a business that truly supports your life, not consumes it.
Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1
✨ Want to Be Coached Live?
Interested in being featured on a future coaching episode? Apply here: https://forms.gle/oocMwawVB3de6aM29
📲 Connect with Ina
Instagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceo
Email: ina@inajphotography.com
Free Consistent Bookings Audit - find your gap in getting consistent bookings: https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-audit
Mentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers — Learn More: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographer