Strategy would be to build a web, as I call it, and getting recommendations and referrals from other vendors. So what that means is that you're going to have to meet and talk to and become friends with lots of wedding vendors that can be your dj, that could be your wedding planners, that could be other photographers and videographers, basically developing a referral network.
I'm Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you're listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level. If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you're in the right place.
Let's get going with today's episode. Today I'm chatting with Craig Peterman, owner of Peterman photo and Video based in Arizona. Having built his business from scratch to earning over $200,000 a year, he now wants to share some of his learnings with you. With a background in SEO and advertising, he has built his brand with smart, low cost strategies and we're going to dive into them today. Craig, welcome to the podcast. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm.
I'm really excited to share some of my knowledge and experience here. I am really looking forward to talking to you. We haven't really ever spoken before and I've kept it that way because I want to kind of dive in and find out more about you during this episode. But you came highly recommended by my friend Megan Ealy and I trust the people that she sends my direction are good because she only ever sends me great guests.
So I'm really looking forward to getting to know you better and finding out more about your business. But first we have to cover off the fact that the time zone thing is always difficult with my guests and I'm always struggling and I'm always having to stay up late to speak to people in America. But you are going to the top of my guest list because you are recording this at 4am so it's a normal time for me. I love that. Oh yes, yes. I'm always up this early.
As they say, the early bird gets the worm. So yeah, I wish I was the 4:00am person. I am definitely not the 4:00am person. But I do want to give you kudos because it's super helpful to me that you were the one that got up really early rather than me being the one that stayed up late. So I appreciate that, and it's going to get you off to a good start in my book. So thank you so much for doing that. Now let's get into your history. Let's find out a little bit more about you.
Tell me how you ended up in this crazy world of weddings in the first place. Take me right back. Yeah, well, I've been doing it professionally for over 10 years now, and I really kind of started to develop my love for photography and videography early on in high school. I took a class in high school, and I just kind of fell in love with it and how creative it could be and, you know, kind of giving that medium to myself to. To share some of my ideas and creativeness.
So from that point, I kind of developed into doing family photography, doing portraits and stuff like that. And then I found myself into the wedding industry and doing photography and then videography after that. So, yeah, it's been a. It's been a long road. I've seen a lot of weddings, a lot of cultures, a lot of people, but it's fun. I love it. It's, you know, it's great. It doesn't feel like work to me. Every. Every wedding is amazing, and all the people I meet are always great.
So did you set out starting it as. Did you kind of start doing it for friends and family and then it evolved into a business? No, I started doing it for friends and family. And then I quickly realized, like, hey, this. This could be a good opportunity. So, yeah, yeah, it kind of started out just for free.
And one of the things I love to chat to my guests about is how they found their first clients, especially in the wedding world, because I think sometimes people listening when they're just starting out, like, the first client, feels like the hardest one to get. It feels like the biggest hurdle. Do you remember your first wedding client? Do you remember how it happened? Yes, I remember my first wedding client, and I got it off a site called Thumbt.
I don't know if you've heard of that or if you haven't in the uk, but, yeah. God, I was so nervous, and I was just like. I think I remember telling him, I was like, thank you so much for trusting me. Like, I'm not gonna let you down. I remember, like, saying that to them, and I was just so nervous. I just wanted to make sure it was right. And I. I think I did pretty well.
I looked back at the photos a couple years back, and they weren't that great, but I know I did like a, you know, a good job for them. So they were happy, everybody was happy. So that's, that's the good part. So that's always a good part. So you did your first wedding. It went well. So what happened next? How did you then start that side of the business and did you continue to do it alongside another job?
So, yes, I did have another job at the time, but I did start kind of building my website from there, figuring out the best strategies for advertising and marketing, just kind of improving on my skill set and how to get better. So, yeah, there was so many things that I had to figure out along the way that I really wish I'd known. But yeah, I just kind of snowball, you know, I got better at this, I got better at that, and then I figured out, okay, I can get better at all this at the same time.
Um, so yeah, you know, it's a long road, it's not easy, but. But you can figure it out for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Now we love to keep it real on this podcast. So one of the things I love talking to people about is some of the mistakes they made early on. Because I think sometimes newer people in the industry look at more established people in the industry and think, oh, they've got it all figured out. But often we all made the same mistakes at the beginning.
So are there any mistakes that jump into your mind when you look back on the early days of your wedding photography or having your. Where you think, I don't know why I did that. Oh God, there's so many. But yeah, anybody that like looks at me and thinks that I haven't figured out, like, there's so many, like there's so many days, you know, even now, like, where I'm like, wow, I just figured that out for the first time. You know, there's just, it's constant learning.
But one of the biggest mistakes I think I made was like trying to number one, offer too much. Like for a while I was doing like any type of photography, like you, you could, I could do anything for you. But I figured out, you know, it's better just to focus on like certain things and then undervaluing your work as well. So I would offer discounts before or I'd offer too many, like add on services and stuff like that.
It just, it kind of just started to like devalue my own work and it, you know, it didn't really make sense. So, yeah, I think it's always that catch 22 for people when they start out and I see so many people making this mistake is that you're so desperate for that first work, you feel like the answer is to be so cheap. And then you end up in this spiral of like, desperation and devaluing yourself and kind of realizing. And it doesn't take long to realize, actually, I cannot sustain this.
So I guess it didn't take you long to realize that I cannot sustain this. Yeah, yeah, you, you can't. You, you can't devalue yourself because people under, like, they're not stupid. They see you, you know, devaluing your own price and it just devalues you. So, yeah, I agree. Lately. Okay, so you are still taking photos and videos to this day, I believe, and you now have a very successful business. It probably feels like a very long way from those early days.
Are your methods for getting clients the same as they were, or do you do things differently now? Where do most of your bookings come from? As we come into 2025, it's the same, but different. Like, my biggest booking factor is the Knot and Wedding Wire. I don't know if that's a thing in Europe and in the uk, but that's probably my number one source.
But as I've grown, the bigger thing that's become a better booking source for me is vendor referrals, market networking with other vendors in the industry as well. So kind of building like a, what I call. It's like a web with other vendors that will recommend me to couples. So I. That's been a big, strong push for me in the past couple of years is doing that and then also working with Megan at OFD Consulting and getting those.
Getting my SEO and backlinks good and kind of building up my PR leads. So, yeah, amazing. Getting yourself out there, getting more people, knowing who you are and doing all of that good stuff as well, and coming on this podcast and speaking to people here in the UK as well. So I'm grateful to have you here. Now, I think it's interesting you mentioned directories, and we're going to have a very brief little chat about this because I think it's interesting that you mentioned that.
Obviously it's been part of your strategy. The Knot and the Wedding Wire. Here in the UK we have similar things called Hitched and Bride Book, but they're all essentially the same thing. What have you found have been the pros and cons of using directories in your business? The number one con is definitely cost. It is expensive. But the pros is number one.
There are a lot of clients will be going there first to get vendors because everybody usually will Google search a vendor that they're looking for and for example, the Knot or Hitch or any other kind of directory like that, they're usually number one ranked in search results. So if you're a part of that, that automatically puts you at the top. And it also builds your own website's SEO and backlink factor as well.
So there's a lot of pros of being a part of it, but the biggest con obviously is the cost and it is very expensive. So yeah, it definitely is. But you do, you do kind of with everything. And we'll talk more about marketing strategies in a minute. You get what you pay for, right? So if you want to reach a lot of people quickly, it can be worth putting in the money. But equally, if you can build up a network so that you don't have to rely on that anym more, that's positive too.
And I said in the introduction when I intro to you, that one of the things you love to focus on is low cost strategies. And I know that will have piqued some people's interest when they tuned into this episode because especially starting out. But even as we go on in business, sometimes it feels like we're spending far too much money and we're not earning enough money back and our profit is not as good as it could be. And one of the things that can feel expensive is marketing.
And I know often when people come to me at the start of their journey and they say, I just don't have the budget for spending lots of money on marketing, how can I get clients? And I know this is something you love to talk about. So we're going to get into that now. And I know you've got some strategies to share with us around how you've done this in your business and how other people can do it as well. So I'd love to know. Let's start with your first low cost marketing strategy.
If someone's listening to this and they've basically got very little budget and they want to grow a wedding business, where should they start? So my first strategy would be to build a web, as I call it, and getting recommendations and referrals from other vendors.
So what that means is that you're going to have to meet and talk to and become friends with lots of wedding vendors that can be your dj, that could be your wedding planners, that could be other photographers and videographers, basically developing a referral network. So if a couple books a dj, for example, and they ask for recommendations and other vendors and you pop up on that list, they're probably going to have a strong lead to book you.
If you pop up on multiple vendors list, say the venue and the DJ recommend you, then you're just going to look really good. So it's really important to build those, those referrals because number one, it's, it's free. You know, you're getting free press, you're free, getting out there for free. So it's really important to kind of build relationships and it's also great just to be friends with everybody in the industry because you're going to be working with them.
So and the number one, if you're a photographer or videographer, the number one thing is probably to become friends with wedding planners. The planners hold the keys to those luxury weddings and those high end weddings that you're going to want to be a part of. So it's important to become friends with as many planners as you can. And you can do that through certain sites too. Like Emerge in the US is one of those ones. WIPA is also one in the US that, that's really popular.
So I'm sure there's equivalents in the UK and the rest of the world as well. But yeah, there's definitely big markets out there to become, to connect with other vendors out there and become referrals and refer each other to couples. So yeah, I totally agree with you. I'm all about the connection. So let's get a bit practical on that networking idea then because again, people might know it in theory, but then actually going and doing it can be a difficult thing.
So you've talked about associations and groups. Some of them have a, a price tag attached to them, some of them don't. Depending on where they are, what other things can people be doing? So say they think, yeah, I'd love to talk to more planners. What have you done in your business? Because just cold reaching out and being like, hey, I'm Becca, I'm a wedding photographer, probably isn't going to work. So what have you done? What should they be doing? So yeah, there's a number of ways.
I mean, I don't want to say like it's recommended to just cold reach out to planners, but I've heard it can work. You know, if you reach out on Instagram and shoot a message, hey, I'm a photographer, would you like to work with me? It could work. You know, there's not. The worst they can say is no, um, but another way to do this and approach it is if you reach out.
And planners have told me this, if someone was reaching out to them on Instagram and said, hey, I'll offer you a commission if you refer me to couples. That's also a free way to do it. You have to pay at the end, but that's one way to do it as well. But I'd say if you're, if you're not into either of those, maybe any weddings or any opportunities that you have where you can talk to them in person in a natural setting is good.
You know, try to make friends with them, try to follow each other on Instagram, tagging people on Instagram for your work. So if you do a wedding, make sure you collaborate with the wedding planner, the dj, get them all involved in your post. That way, you know, it just helps. And then if you're a photographer or videographer too, offering your photos and videos to any vendors at the wedding as well so they can share, that just makes you look really good because you have all the media to share.
So yeah, it's just trying to, to meet people in a natural setting is probably going to be your best bet. So, yeah, absolutely. Getting yourself in the right rooms with people. And again, I know there'll be people shouting and going, yeah, but getting in the right rooms costs money. Going to events costs.
One of the lowest cost things that I encourage people to do sometimes if they have literally zero budget and they want to meet people, is to find a wedding fair or something that's going on in their area where people are exhibiting, turning up to it and going like at the end of the day when there's no one there and everyone's having to stand around board and just go and chat to people there and then.
Because it won't cost you to get in that room, but at least you're in a room with the right kind of people. Obviously you need to do some research about the kind of event who's going to be there. But it doesn't. Like, we don't need to put these excuses in all of the time. I think it's easy for us to go, yeah, but, yeah, but I kind. You can't do that because. And I think people are scared of rejection as well and scared that people won't want to reach out to them.
Do you have any thoughts on that? You can't be afraid of that. Like, if you're going to own a business, that's something, you just gotta have to remove that from your brain. Like you just can't. But you bring up a really good point. You know, wedding shows are really good. I've had. I've had planners come to me at a wedding show before where I was exhibiting, and I didn't even think of that. That's a really good way to reach out at no cost. So, yeah, absolutely.
But you have to go at the right time. You can't go at the bit where it's really busy. But we all know if we've done wedding shows. I've done them in the past. I don't know if you have as well. You know, there's that bit at the end where you have to stay because the show's not ended, but there is no one there and you're just stood like twiddling your fingers.
That is the perfect time that you want someone to come over and talk to you, to entertain you, give you something and have something to offer you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I've been in a few shows just like that. The other thing I think is interesting when it comes to relationship building and a free way to do it is also asking your current connections for other connections. So I said at the beginning of this podcast, me and you have never met before. I don't believe.
I don't think we've really had a conversation before. But you are here on this podcast. We're having this conversation due to a mutual connection that we both trust and know and comes recommended. And so sometimes friends of friends can be a great place to start. So, you know, if you're a photographer looking to connect with planners and you have other people in your network, ask them. Is there anyone you can introduce me to? Is there anyone you think I should get to know?
Is there anyone you think I should work with? Because that introduction can be really powerful, too. Yeah, just. Just having that network and meeting people that you wouldn't normally meet through making those connections is going to be huge for your business. I mean, you. You think you're going to make a friend with somebody and they're going to refer you, but you don't realize that they could also refer you to other vendors. And it just, again, it builds a web, as I call it. So, yeah, it's.
It's incredibly important to, to get yourself out there and not be afraid of rejection either. So. And definitely. And it is so powerful. I mean, people cold reach out to me to be on this podcast all of the time, and if I don't know no relationship with them, then the chances are I'm not going to have them on. But when they're referred by someone That I super trust, it kind of breaks down that barrier.
So it's the same thing if you're cold reaching out to planners, they may ignore you, but if someone that they trust is recommending you, that's going to always jump past that barrier a lot easier. Okay, so we talked a lot about connections and networking and meeting people. Let's look at something else. Now you said your background is also in SEO. So talk to us about how SEO can be a low cost marketing strategy. Because sometimes people think of SEO as being really expensive.
They see these SEO agencies trying to charge them thousands, thousands of pounds or dollars a month to do SEO. So how can we make this a low cost strategy? Yeah, so I mean, obviously you need to research this. This is a complicated subject and it's like an onion and you got to peel back layers of this. So researching, watching YouTube videos to kind of educate yourself on what SEO is and what you need to do.
So SEO in a nutshell really is going to be how your, your website performs on a Google search. So if you search for basketball, for example, there's going to be five results that are really organic and they're high ranking based on the their authority and backlinks and so on and so forth. So SEO is going to be mainly going to be what your website's texting is or what your, your description is on your website.
So if you want to rank high for wedding videographer London or wedding photographer London, you need to have a lot of that phrase in your website and that's going to get you boosted up by Google. You also need to have fresh content. You also need to have good backlinks. And what a backlink is is to say the not has your website link website. That's going to be a high ranking backlink to your site and it's going to boost your authority.
So I guess in a nutshell, what you need to think about first is the wording on your website. What do you have there and how is it going? If Google has a query for wedding video or wedding photographer in London, does your website have that phrase in your website? Many times. And that's going to be the number one thing you need to do first. So again, there's a lot, a lot of research involved, but it is easier than you think. So yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
And the thing is, I often say to people, when you don't have money, if you can have time, that can help you. So there are so many resources out there. There's podcast episodes, I've got on this podcast about SEO. There's training that I've done with people on SEO. There is YouTube videos, as you said. There's loads of people in the wedding industry specifically that put out great SEO content.
So even if you don't have the money to pay someone to do your SEO, spend the time learning how to do it and just making those small changes. Sometimes it can be basic things like the title of your website that can make a big impact where you haven't optimized it or naming your images, things like that. So yeah, SEO, it is a minefield. We could talk about it for a few hours and still not be further forward.
But I think it is something that people neglect and actually can be really powerful because ultimately don't we all just still Google everything that we want most of the time? Yes, exactly. Everything starts at Google. So you know, you want to be high ranking on Google. And I mean my God, with AI out there and prevalent now, there's no excuse for you to not to do it. AI can help you do, you know, 90% of the work now. So yeah, please do not spend thousands of pounds or dollars on SEO.
SEO strategist. Just do it yourself and learn. It's not that hard. Amazing. Okay, so we've covered. Number one strategy was networking, meeting people. Number two strategy is SEO. Now I think you're going to throw a curveball at us. What is the third strategy you have for us? That's low cost marketing. Yeah, this is a bit of a wild card. So I would say the number, number three low cost strategy would be Facebook Marketplace.
It is totally free and there's groups dedicated to anything you can think of. So if you there's probably 10 groups for wedding photographer in London or UK or something like that. So what you want to is join those groups and then post your information on the group periodically because everybody in that group is going to see that post. You can also post a Facebook's official marketplace for your area and get hits that way. You can also boost those results if you want. So it's again, it's free.
You're going to get thousands of eyeballs on each post and you may not get, you know, 30, 40 weddings a year from it, but you might get five or 10 and that's totally free advertising. So just getting yourself out there in Facebook Marketplace is easy and it's free. So is this something you've implemented in your own business? Because again, I know there'll be some people thinking this is a wild card because doesn't that just attract really low cost weddings.
Are anyone who's got any money looking on Facebook or is it, do people have budgets? Like, talk to me about what you've done in your business. Have you used this yourself? Where have you seen it work? Yeah, I use it all the time. I post up on Facebook Marketplace. No, there's, I mean, of course there's going to be varying budgets from all kinds of clients looking for people, but there's a surprising amount of couples looking for vendors on Facebook Marketplace. It's kind of insane.
I usually get about 5 to 10 a year just booked off that. So another cool thing about it too is you can book clients and destination spots that you want to go. So for me, like I like to go to San Diego a lot in the US And I can book clients on there for free and I don't have to spend marketing dollars on there. So another great thing too is the algorithm on Facebook will start showing you relevant posts to couples looking for wedding photographers or videographers too.
So once you start posting, Facebook will pick it up their algorithms and then they'll start showing you posts of couples searching for vendors as well. So once you get on that Algorith algorithm, you're just going to start hitting couples every single day. So yeah, it's surprisingly good and I recommend it for anybody. So I probably shouldn't because it's just going to saturate the market.
But not necessarily because what I find is that 90% of people don't do the things that they're learning about. So, you know, if you're in the 10%, you who are doing the things that you're hearing, then you're always going to do better. Okay, so you're posting on Facebook now. What kind of thing would you be posting? Because I've been in some of these free groups where it just feels like people are spamming them all the time and it's not particularly helpful.
So what kind of things would you be posting? Posting to try and draw attention to your business? Well, admittedly I'm probably one of those people that probably spams a little bit, but. But yeah, I think just kind of just putting your price, your price info up there, your information, searching for a couple, you could throw a deal on there if you want. Again, this is going to devalue your work if you want to do like a percentage off or something like that.
But it will get some attention for sure if you want to try to get some bookings. But yeah, I would say just kind of like don't do it every day, but, you know, maybe like once or twice a month or something like that. Just so you don't get like annoying to the group. Yeah, I'd say just general info seems to work. Or posting some recent work, like, hey, check out my, my images from this recent wedding. Something that you're really proud of is always interesting.
So, yeah, I would just, you know, kind of just play it by ear, see what other people in the group are doing and just try to do something maybe a little different. I love that. So the thing is that you talked about the destination thing. I think that's a really interesting concept as well, because it's true. When you are going on holiday somewhere or you're going to a particular spot, there are Facebook groups for everything.
Like I was in Vegas NBA in November and I'm a Facebook group that's called like UK visits to Vegas or something. And people post loads of tips in there. Now if I was a photographer and I posted in there, I'm going to be in Vegas these dates. If anyone's getting married and wants a deal, I'm going to take photos. Like, why wouldn't that get hits? Like, that's a great idea. I love it. Yeah, exactly. Why? Who, who doesn't want a paid vacation? Yeah, exactly.
So, yeah, I love the idea of thinking about joining some of those different areas if there's somewhere either you're already going to be or somewhere you particularly want to go and you want to put together a specific package for that place for those people who are unique, know, are already planning to go there. Excellent idea. It is a wild card. I know there'll be some people, they'll be thinking, ugh, Facebook, I don't want anything to do with it.
But for a few of you, this may be something that could change the trajectory of your 2025. So I love it. Okay, let's recap then. So we've got the three things you shared with us. One, networking, getting out there, meeting people. Two, SEO. And three, Facebook. The wildcard. What about other social media? Are you using Anything on Instagram? TikTok? What's working for you in that in terms of getting clients? Yes, Instagram.
Instagram is probably a big one for me and it's a big one for a lot of people in the. Just getting, getting your photos out there. I mean, you have to. There's no. You can't get around that. So once couples get on an algorithm where they're looking at wedding photography, if you, if your posts are popping up, you're going to get clients up there. So Instagram. Yes, absolutely. I would even recommend boosting posts on Instagram. That's going to really help you.
So. And it's an easy way to, to share your work as well, your recent work. So TikTok, yes, I do post on there. It's a little bit sticky situation here in the us it's looking like it might get banned or something like that. So. But yes, t is it's taking the world by storm. You should be on there until they kick you off. So definitely get on there. Other social media, I would say probably Twitter, I don't use much.
I don't know if there's any kind of like social media that we don't have that you have that I haven't heard of. But yeah, I'd say the big players here are going to be Instagram, Facebook and TikTok right now. So for sure, yeah. The only other one I play around with sometime is LinkedIn because I found that there's a bit of resurgence on LinkedIn, not necessarily for finding couples, but definitely for connecting with those vendors.
Going back to number one, if you want to connect with people that work at certain venues or planners in your area, actually it can be a great place to find them. And the noise is less over there. If you go at it from a business to business perspective, it's another one to bear in mind as well. Now I'd love to just kind of find out a bit about your business journey and these marketing strategies intertwined.
So we've kind of gone at this about people being at the beginning of their business journey when they've got no money to spend on market. So when you look back over your decade in business, were these strategies things you implemented at the beginning and now you have a very different idea and you spend a lot more money on marketing because you have more money or have you stayed consistent with your strategies throughout? I've stayed pretty consistent, but I've added a lot of strategies.
So the number, the first thing I really kind of started doing was like Google Ads and I've stayed pretty consistent with it. But I've started building ads on Instagram, Facebook, networking, the knot, wedding wire, you know, the directories as we mentioned. So yeah, I think it's, it's stayed pretty consistent.
If you find a source that's working for you, say for example, if you're on Google and your Google Ads are really working, stick with it, you know, just kind of enhance what you do and then try to add some other strategies. Around that. So you're just not all your eggs are in one basket, so to speak. So. But yeah, for me, it's stayed pretty consistent. I just been kind of adding ways to get clients because if one thing falls off, you'd have to have a few backups.
So. Yeah. And I've had lots of people talking about Google Ads really working for them. Well, at the moment, again, it's another thing that's definitely going to cost you money and you definitely need to learn how to do it or invest a bit of time into it. But yeah, definitely another strateg for people a little bit further on in business who have a little bit more money to think about. Okay. I also want to talk to you about income ceilings.
So changing it up a little bit because I always think it's important when we talk about money. And we did in your intro in your bio it said that, you know, you've built this $200,000 a year business, but sometimes people think, well, how on earth do you get there? Because it feels like in weddings that there's an income ceiling. Like you only have so many weekends of the year, there's only so many days of the year.
And then once you're booked, booked out, you know, it's hard to kind of get into those figures. So I just wondered if you're willing to share how you've done that in your business. Is it because you've put your prices up over time, work a lot of days of the year? Do you have a team that goes out for you? Where have you kind of grown your business? All the above, everything you just said. So yes, I've raised my prices over time. That's going to be the number one thing you should do.
So once you start getting booked more than you think you can handle, you need to start raising your prices. If the demand is really high, your price needs to be really high. But for me, I like to work. I don't have any kids, you know, I don't have any, like things that are holding me back. I'll work, you know, anytime I can. So for the day that I get double booked or triple booked, yes. I have a team that helps me and that can cover for me.
So again, that's really going to be important for you to build a network of vendors and have a team around you. So yeah, I'd say all three are really good ways to build your ceiling. For me, I don't have a ceiling. Like, I'll go as much as I can, you know, just because it's possible for me. So. But I think it's important, too, to find where your limit is. You know, you shouldn't overextend yourself from burning herself out.
There's been years where I'm like, I really need to scale back a little bit. You know, there's just too many, you know, one October, which is like, the busiest month in Arizona in the U.S. i think I had 30 weddings in the month, and that's just too much. So at that point, I was like, I just need to raise my prices and kind of filter out some of the ones that I probably shouldn't be doing. So I agree with you. That is too much.
There are some photographers that only do 30 weddings in a year, let alone in a month. So that is crazy. But assuming then that you have this team that go out under your brand, but it's not you there at the wedding, so your couples know that from early on that it may not be you, it may be someone else. Is that how you've kind of become the CEO of your business? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I tell every couple, like, hey, I'm booked, but I have a team that helps me. Would that be okay?
And then I also let them know, like, hey, I'm still going to be editing everything. So the really only difference is just someone else behind the camera. But they still train with me. They use the same camera that I do. They use the same technique. So really it's just kind of a different person behind the camera. But, yeah, every couple is aware of that. So amazing.
And I think some people would just find that a little bit scary is a little bit of letting go, because especially when you are the creator, when you're the photographer and videographer. And I was a videographer myself, so I understand that you have that kind of, like, I need to get the right shots, and I need to make sure it's perfect. Do you remember the first time you sent out a team member? How did you find that feeling of letting go and just letting them do the work? Oh, God, it's scary.
It's still scary because, you know, like, there's no control. You're just hoping that, you know, they'll take care of it. So. But, yeah, I do remember the first one, and she did really, really well. But I really trust her. Like, it's my friend Emily that. That helps me with a lot of weddings. So she would be my second for many, many weddings. And then I. There was one I was like, hey, do you think you can do one solo? And she's like, yeah, I'm ready for it. And she nailed it.
So, yeah, you know, there's. There's definitely a trust factor. You have to know the people that you're sending out there and make sure that you trust them. You can't just send some random person out there. So, yeah, it's going to be scary, but if you trust them, it should be all right.
Yeah. And that is the only way you will ever grow past a certain point, because there is no way the one human can service so many weddings in that at some point, if you want your business to grow bigger than it is today, then at some point you do have to let go and give some of that trust over. But it kind of circles right back to where we started, which is build relationships.
Because if you've invested in those relationships early on and you've got to know other vendors and you've got to know other people and you've worked with people, then it's easier to then trust them to take on the work rather than a complete stranger. Okay, final couple of questions before we wrap up this conversation. We've been all over the place. I've loved it. It's been really, really interesting to hear a bit more about your story and to find out succeeded in the industry.
I know over your decade you'll have met a lot of different photographers. Especially now you're trying to do a little bit more of teaching and helping people. We talked about pricing earlier, but are there any other key mistakes that you see people making when they start out in business? So if there's someone listening that's thinking, I'm going to start my photography and videography business in 2025. What are the key mistakes you see people making that we can say, don't do that. Oh, wow.
There's a lot. I would say, number one is just trying to be independent and trying to do everything yourself and building those relationships like that. That was my worst mistake, which I'm sure we'll go over here at the end. But that, that is probably going to be your number one thing, is making sure that you're building those relationships. You're not just a solo person. You have to do it. But I'd say following trends too, is a big hiccup.
I see a lot of photographers that are like, oh, I'm just going to do blurry because, you know, blurry photos, because I see it all the time on social media or just trying to emulate or having that imposter syndrome from posting and stuff like that. I think that's there's just so many. Like, just as a photographer or videographer, there's an inherent nature of, like, being super critical of yourself or, you know, just kind of like not valuing who you are as a photographer, who. What your.
Your niche is. So I think just figuring out who you are and what style you want and sticking with it and not being afraid to post and, you know, put yourself out there is a big thing. You know, just don't be afraid. That's. That's a big thing in photography and videography. You know, don't be afraid to make mistakes, actually, is what I guess I'm trying to say. Yeah, it's a great mantra. Don't be afraid to mistakes. And that is translated across the industry, to everyone, DJs, florists.
I see people held back by fear all of the time and that strive for perfectionism. And actually, I mean, I wrote an entire book called Done is Better than Perfect for that very reason. Because we need to sometimes just take, like, imperfect action to get the results rather than holding ourselves back by being totally afraid of it. Okay. I always end my podcast with the same question. So I'm going to pose that to you now, Craig, and it's this.
What's one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your own wedding business? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Touched on it earlier. Earlier. It's building relationships and networking at. When I first started, I was just like, oh, this is just me and this is my little world and I didn't go out of it. And, you know, I didn't po. Or I didn't tag people or I didn't make friends or anything like that. So, yeah, that was the biggest mistake I made is just not being friendly, not putting myself out there.
And it cost me down the road for sure. But now I'm trying to correct that and make friends and get myself out there now. So, yeah, I would say that's. If you're starting out, do that first. Make friends and build a network of vendors and. And everybod you can. So I love that. And you are doing a good job because you've now made a new friend over here in England. I've loved having this conversation. It's been great getting to know you a little bit better.
And I hope that our paths will cross again at a conference or an event or an online summit somewhere soon. Craig, thank you so much. If people want to find out more about your business, if they want to chat to you further, where's the best places for them to come and find you. Yeah, you can find me on social media at Peterman photo and Video, or you can go to my website, which is www.petermanphotovideo. So fantastic. Thank you so much for your time and I hope that we can talk again soon.
Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Such a fantastic conversation with Craig. I love talking to people that have been recommended to me, but I don't know at all because I can really get to know them and their business. And at the same time, you can learn a little bit more about their journey and how you can implement some of the things they've learned over the last few years into your own business. I hope you found today helpful. Why not go and try a couple of those strategies for yourself?
I'll see you next time.