I am Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer, turned pet and family photographer back in 2010. I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses.
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With welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. Hey everybody. Nicole here from the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. Welcome back. I am so excited to bring you a new episode today. This time with Michaela Trujillo from Bmac Pet Photography over in San Diego, California. Michaela, welcome to the podcast. Nicole. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Of course, I'm super excited to have you here and talk about this Wall Gallery contest. But before we dig into that, I would love for you just to let everybody know a little bit about you and your business, how you got into pet photography, how long have you been in business, just you know a little bit about your background. Yeah,
absolutely. Well, yes, I'm the owner of BMAC PET Photography and I am based out of San Diego, California. I specialize in outdoor adventure sessions, both in San Diego and all across the western United States because I do love to travel. I've also been dabbling in commercial pet photography recently, and I've been in business for two years now. And in January I did go full-time in dog photography,
so that's super exciting. I actually started the business right after I attended HoundVision in Lake Tahoe back in 2022. I didn't Realize you were just starting your business then. I forgot about that. I thought you were already in, that's awesome. No, I was. Yeah, I was brand new. Brand new. Hadn't hadn't technically launched. Yeah,
that's a little bit about me. That's Been a lot of exciting things happening in the past two years. Yes. I love following you on social media too with all your travels out west and just, yeah, So pretty. Thank you. Thank you. So fun. Yes, I love it. I here in the, The land of the green,
there's not a lot of open, beautiful spots. I mean, it's pretty different. Yeah, it's nice. We have like the deserts and I feel like those are just Yeah, the red rocks and everything. So beautiful. So pretty. So pretty. Yeah. Well that's awesome. All right, so can you give us a little bit of an overview,
like a high level overview of what a gallery wall contest is? Yeah, absolutely. So the gallery wall contest is sort of similar to the calendar contest, if you've ever heard of that. We used the same software to host the contest, but basically how I came up with this idea is I really wanted to display my artwork somewhere local and yeah, just have my artwork out there.
So I decided to approach a local pet store. I was a customer there. I knew they had some available wall space that they weren't using. And so I decided to ask her, you know, if it would be okay if I displayed some of my prints on her wall. And from there we sort of decided why not host a contest to see who,
you know, what local dogs could be displayed on the wall and to raise money for a charity in the process. So I sort of thought of the calendar wall contest a little bit and how that runs and I figured that could work really well for this sort of thing. So yeah, that's kind of how it came to be and a little bit of what it was.
Well, I love it. You know, I love anywhere that we can work in a little charitable component. That's really how I built my business with marketing. So yeah. That's fantastic. How did this compare, maybe what, what's some of the other marketing that you have been doing in your business as well and kind of how did this compare, compare to some of the other stuff you've done in the past?
Yeah, this was awesome. I mean, I've done, I do a lot on social media and I do get clients from Instagram. I've also done events and I just feel like I'm always really gung ho about events and then I, I honestly don't get a lot of clients from them. Yeah. And so with this, it's kind of awesome because even now that the contest is over,
my artwork is hanging in that pet store and everybody who comes and shops sees it. And I've gotten quite a few clients who they've gone into the store, they're metal prints, so they're very like vibrant. So it's six 16 by 24 metal prints. So they're pretty large, but they see those prints and they call me because that's, they want one of those of their dog.
So yeah, I feel like it was a really great, great way to market just and do something a little bit different. And then also, you know, for the contest, if people wanted to get, gather more votes they had to share on social media and I had my logo, the pet store had their logo, the dog rescue that we were supporting had their logo.
So all of us, you know, were being seen by lots of new, new faces, new followers. So that was also another plus. I love it. I love it. That's fantastic. So let's kind of walk through this all high level first. There was this business that you had already kind of known the owner, or you've been shopping there,
like kind of was it just a, a client relationship or did you know this person, you know, outside of just shopping there? So actually the pet store is about like two and a half years old. And when they first opened I decided I'm gonna go to this pet store. 'cause it looks just very, it's kinda like a groovy hippie theme.
Yeah. It was very small local. I knew the owner really liked to support local businesses just based on social media. And so I was like, I'm just gonna go there and introduce myself. So this was like maybe six months after they opened. So still pretty new. Okay. And I did that. I became a customer and then I offered her a free photo session,
which she took me up on. And we did a photo session and she ended up buying two pretty large metal prints that are actually hanging in her shop. And they're definitely statement pieces. There's like one behind the cash register and then another one right across. And people see those all the time and they're like, oh my gosh, I love those photos 'cause it's her and her dog.
Oh, that's Awesome. Yeah, so that's kind of how I, I built the relationship is I offered her something. And then from there she really supports all small businesses, especially women owned. She's awesome. So we kind of formed a relationship. Now we're friends. So yeah, it was a little bit easier to approach her in that regard 'cause we already,
like, I'd already built rapport. Yep. But yeah, that's kind of how, how that happened and how I reached out and yeah. But I, I think I love That. But it was, yeah, it was a cold, A cold Hello. A cold inquiry way back in the day. Oh, absolutely. When you first walked in there.
Yeah, It was very cold and yeah, it, it blossomed pretty quickly, which is awesome. She like invited me to come like photograph an event like a week later and it was just, you know, very, very supportive, which was awesome. But yeah, I think even if you don't have a relationship with a store owner yet, or a local business,
you could form one. And this is an awesome way for them to get artwork in their store, you know, from a local artist. I mean I did, you know, all the shooting, all I printed the products, all that stuff. So they don't really have to do that much work. So yeah, it's kind of awesome for them to,
I love it. Yeah, I love it. Awesome. Yeah, no, that is a great way to reach out to people for sure. And I, I love really the way that you approached it in the beginning where you just introduce yourself, you offer some value. I mean that's really what we can do best for any business we wanna connect with.
Exactly. And You know, and then you can start to build more relationships. But I think this could be a really fun way to, to work with anybody. And I also, again, like I said, love bringing in the charitable piece because then you have, you know, a better opportunity for any sort of potential press. More people are willing to share it because it has a charitable piece to it.
You have more people to get it in front of, more people to market it. Yeah. That's fantastic. Okay, so you made this connection and then, well actually let's go back to that complimentary session that you offered the owner. Was it just a complimentary session and then she bought everything? Or did you offer the complimentary session with product credit? What did that look like?
Yeah, when I offered her the session, I said that I love to do a session with her and her dog. 'cause the dog's kind of like the mascot of the store. And she was a puppy at the time. And I said that I would gift her a, some digital files and then like a, a small metal print. I was gonna do like an eight by 10 or something.
Yeah. Just like something small to hang in the store. Yeah. But then afterwards she's like, you know what, I really want like large pieces of these, of these photos you took like can we make that happen? And I'm like, absolutely. Yes. So she didn't, I didn't give her a product credit or anything, but it was just the offer of,
I did give her some digitals so there were free digitals Yeah. That she could use on her social media, but then she purchased the, the prints. Yeah. I love that. That's great. Yeah. All right, cool. So then you guys are ready to start do this contest. Did you guys, I guess you probably figured out what came first,
like figuring out how many winners, what sizes, what's this gonna look like? Were you paying, I think you mentioned that you paid for the, the wall display. So Yeah. Is that kind of, yeah. So what did you have to plan before you started? Yeah, absolutely. So I mean we were lucky in that she had basically a wall that she wasn't using and it's kind of in a hallway in the store,
so it wasn't gonna be used for merchandise or anything like that. And she had always meant to do something with it. She just, you know, is busy and doesn't have the time. So that is the wall we used. And when we measured it out, I wanted the prints to be like pretty, you know, decently large. And we decided that six 16 by 24 prints would fit their best.
So that meant that there were gonna be six winners for the contest. So that's kind of how we decided on that piece. And then, yeah, as far as the metal prints, we decided to split the cost. So she paid for half, I paid for half of the prints. Oh my. But after, so the prints are probably gonna stay up for six months to a year.
And then all of the winners have the option and they all said they would be purchasing the metal prints at the end of that and we'll charge a little bit, a little bit more know than they cost, but it, it'll be less than my usual price. Yeah. For a normal session. So yes, we paid the money upfront, which we'll we'll make that back and then some.
So it was a little bit of an, an investment in that regard. I love that though. That's a great idea to allow the clients to purchase them later on. Exactly. Did That affect, I'm assuming though, that the goal of this was also to get those clients and then do a full session and sell to those clients. So did those clients end up purchasing more or are they just waiting for their metal print?
Yeah, most of them were, are kind of waiting for their metal print. But they did everyone, so basically they won when they were a winner they got to have a session with me, but the session was only gonna be for that one specific image which they would get the digital file for. However, I told them if they wanted to upgrade to a full session that we could do that.
Right. And all of them did. And so then I went through my normal process with them. They also got a product credit, I think it was like a hundred dollars or something Yeah. To spend on product and yeah. So most people got digital files or a photo album 'cause that's what I like to sell. So yeah. Perfect. Yeah.
And then most of 'em are kind of are gonna be waiting for that metal print for when they can buy it. Awesome. To add onto their order. Yes. I love it. That's fantastic. Okay, so you've talked to the owner, you have an idea, you're gonna, you have the wall fleshed out. You know how many people you're gonna do the photo contest.
Go go photo contest is yes. The, the company that does this and they're fantastic. They're a small company, they're the nicest people and they're just Great. Yeah, they were, they were awesome. Super easy to work with and yeah, it just makes everything go so easily 'cause they just do everything and send the money to the rescue when it comes in and all that,
so. Yep. Yep. I love it. So how did you guys choose which rescue you wanted to work with? I just kind of looked at rescues around San Diego. I did wanna find sort of a smaller one so that our impact of the money we raised could be bigger. I reached out to quite a few to be honest and didn't hear back from a lot of them.
And the one that I did hear back from, that's the one that I went with and you know, I just said, you know, this is what we're doing. We're fundraising, we'd love to donate all the, you know, whatever money we raise to you. You know, all you need to do really is be willing to post on social media.
I will give you all of the, you know, templates, everything you need. You know, maybe email your email list and you know, that's about it. So yeah, it was a relatively easy sell 'cause they were willing to do that. And so, so that's kind of how I picked the rescue. I was looking for just a little bit smaller of a rescue and I think they had a couple thousand followers on Instagram,
which is always good to get in front of a new audience for me and for the pet store. So yeah, that's kind of how we picked that. I love it. Yeah. I found the same thing where those small to medium sized rescues tend to have the, the biggest a the most engaged following because they're so volunteer that dependent and then also the money can have a bigger impact on them.
So they're more excited to really market for it. Which, you know, nothing against the big shelters, they're fantastic, they're doing the heavy lifting in the market for sure. But their budget's so much bigger that what I'm able to contribute to them is a drop in the bucket. So they can't spend the time absolutely on that much. 'cause they're all strapped,
you know, as far as time and so busy just like everybody else. So, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think that's a really good, a really good option. Yeah. And they had some like medical needs dogs and so like we knew the money was going to like medical bills already. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. It was cool to see the money,
you know, where it was going and all that. So yeah, I love it. I love it. All right, so then you get the contest up. How long did you run your contest for? I ran it for three weeks. Okay. I think I probably, if I did it again, I would maybe do four, but we did it for three weeks and we had little mini contests each week.
So I reached out to some other businesses to see if they would donate prizes to kind of get people engaged, get more votes on certain days. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Excellent. And then afterwards, yeah, they won, you wanted to see if they wanted to upgrade and then did a full session for those that wanted upgrade. If they didn't wanna upgrade,
what were they gonna win? So if they did not wanna upgrade, they would get the session with me to get to capture basically the one image and they would get that digital file and then still the option to purchase the metal print. Okay. At the end of perfect six months or so. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. So we're gonna link to the show notes,
your blog post where you showcase the Yes, the wall 'cause it's beautiful. Thank you. And yeah, tell us a little bit about your thoughts about where you shot and how you wanted to kind of create the aesthetic of the wall. Yeah, so all of the photos I did at different beaches in San Diego, all of 'em are pretty famous beaches.
And that's because the pet store, it's located in Encinitas, California, which is a small beach town and the store is very like beachy vibes and like kind of groovy hippie. So I just felt that that would mesh really well with the store. So I did think about that when I was shooting. So yeah, I picked six different beach locations and then it was kind of nice too once the wall went up,
there's little placards underneath that has the dog's name and then like what the location is in San Diego. But yeah, that's how I decided, decided on that and where to do the sessions. I love it. Awesome. And in on that blog post you have that the one wall says gallery wall reveal night. Did you guys have a big reveal party?
Yes. What did you do? What did you do there? We did, it was super fun. So I shot most of the images over like a six week period I'd say. And then a few weeks after that I didn't show, I showed some behind the scenes but I didn't show any photos from any of the sessions or any of the photos that would be on the wall.
And we decided to host a gallery wall reveal night is what we called it. And so that was at the pet store. And so I waited till the day of the gallery wall reveal to hang up the prints. And basically what we did is we had like an after hours exclusive gallery wall reveal and shopping experience at Pet Power Studio is the name of the pet store.
And so that took place on a Saturday evening and we invited all the gallery wall winners to come. They got to come for the first like 30 minutes and we had snacks and wine and yeah just you know, some fun stuff for them. And we, me and the store owner gave a speech and then there was kind of like a curtain covering the wall.
And so we did a big reveal and we pulled down the curtain and then everybody got to see the photo of their dog up on the wall as well as the other ones, which was super fun. It was like so fun to see that. And then, so we also made it available to the public. We said, you know, whoever wants to come to the gallery while reveal night and see the photos,
like please come, it's gonna be an exclusive shopping event. So the store owner was offering a lot of discounts on stuff at the store. Yeah, we probably had about, we capped it at 20 people 'cause the store is small and we didn't want it to be too overwhelming, but we probably had like 20, 25 people come and yeah shop see the wall.
And it was really fun. And I think that was really beneficial for the store owner too. Right. Because that was after hours and she was able to, you know, make a little bit of money as well. So that was awesome for her. Yeah. Win-win. Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. Okay. And now that it's up,
when did this, when did this go up? How long's it been up for? It's been up since November, so we are approaching the Okay. Six month mark. Awesome. Yeah, I have you seen some clients come in from seeing the, the wall like people that have been shopping at the store? Have you gotten some new clients that have gotten exposed to you there?
Yes I have. Absolutely. Which is, yeah. Awesome. I've gotten, I think I, if I remember correctly, like four, four sessions booked from people who were like, yeah I was at the pet store, I saw the photos up on the wall and I, I want one of those of my dog. Yeah. So yeah, that worked really.
I love it really well. I love it. It's so nice to be able to see the artwork, like actually Oh yeah. You know, it's so much more impactful For sure. Yeah. Do you have any special offers up there or is it really just like the artwork with like your information or like is there a QR code on the wall that sends 'em to that special page or what's that look like?
Yeah, it's, it's just the artwork and then I do have like my logo and a simple sign that has my QR code on it and it just goes to my website. I don't have a special offer or anything, but yeah. Just so they can follow me on Instagram or go to my website from there. Yeah. That's awesome. I love it.
Thank you. Do you have any advice for someone you know that maybe is considering doing something like this? Emma's here trying to speak to the microphone. Hi, Emma Dog is in doggy daycare on Tuesdays, so she's like, oh that's Perfect. I get to hang out office and get hair everywhere. But yeah. Do you have any advice for photographers that are,
you know, out there trying to, you know, do something fun marketing wise? Like what kind of photographer or you know, who should consider doing something like this? Yeah, honestly I think any sort of photographer could do this just at different businesses in your area. You know, even if you're a landscape photographer or like a newborn photographer, anything.
I think if you find a business where they're selling something similar to what you do or that sort of thing, I think this is a great, this is a great marketing tool and it's just awesome. 'cause not only are you collaborating with the local business, but you're also raising money for a charity, which who doesn't love that? You know what I mean?
Yeah. And it is, it is awesome to see your artwork up on the wall Yeah. In a store because the calendar contest I think is awesome. But the calendar, like it's in people's homes, you know, but with the the gallery wall contest, the prints are up in a store and people get to see them for months and months whenever they go in.
Yeah. I love it. And then, you know, you can make it a, a regular yearly thing too. Exactly. And the other thing is, you could do this multiple times a year. You could do it with five different businesses if you wanted to. Like you could just keep doing this all year round if you wanted to. Yeah,
Yeah. So I think that's another really awesome thing about it for sure. Yeah, I love it. And it can have different vibes too, like you said, this one's beachy. Exactly. Because it's kind of the vibe of the store, but maybe there's another one that's real urban, so then you have urban dog images in there or you know,
depending on what the, the decor of each store is. Exactly. Like a brewery or a winery or like anywhere. Yeah. It'd be so fun to create those images for it. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Awesome. Yeah. Well thank you so much for sharing this with us, so appreciate it. Absolutely. Can,
can you let people know where they can find out more? I'll link to that blog post in the show notes, but you know, let people know where they can find you online and, and Yeah, absolutely. How they can follow up. Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at bmac Pet Photography and my website is www.bmacpetphotography.com. And the other thing is,
if you are interested in hosting your own gallery wall contest, you can definitely apply, you know, what you've learned here today or I've also created a comprehensive how to guide to help you along to host your own contest. So if you are interested in that, maybe we can link that in the show notes too of where they can get Yeah, for sure.
The guide, if you want even more guidance, we can always hop on a Zoom call to talk about it as well. So there's lots of options. Cool. Awesome. We'll link all that stuff up down here below in the show notes. Perfect. Awesome. Mikayla, this has been so great. Thank you so much for sharing with us. I love how you just took this idea and kind of really made it your own and made it something unique.
There's just so many opportunities out there for us to market our businesses in ways that, you know, hasn't really been done before. And I like to ask myself, you know, how can this be fun? And this is definitely a, a fun way to do that. So thank you. Thank God absolutely. For yes, for sharing. Thank you for,
thank you for having me on. Of course. Yeah. We'll see you soon. Bye everybody. We'll see you next week.