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Mother-daughter duo did over $300K in their first full year in Florida.
0:00In this interview I'm going to introduce you to Steinart Studio out of Central Florida and I'm going to show you how a newborn and maternity photographer were able to make over three hundred thousand dollars in their first year after relocating to Florida after not having many clients every single month and then how they almost made five hundred thousand dollars in the entire year for 2022.
0:23Okay well thank you so much for joining us. If you don't mind can you guys introduce yourselves to the audience and tell us a little bit about where you guys are and what you do?
0:34Thank you for having us. I'm Caitlin Feinstein and this is my mom Christina Feinstein. We're owners of CNR studio photography. We specialize in maternity newborn and cake smash photography. We work out of Orlando Florida.
0:54Well tell me how did you guys get started in photography? I know you guys are mom and daughter which isn't usually the case but how did you guys get started?
1:04Yeah I started since I was twelve. I got my first job when I was twelve. My first purchase was a camera. And I started doing pictures during the years. It became more of a hobby that slowly developed into a profession and when you start taking pictures you start taking pictures of everything. Slowly you have your direction so that's what made us find babies maternity and everything related to families.
1:49Tell them where you went to college and what was your career.
1:51Yeah so I am a forensic investigator and I worked in the field twelve years.
2:01So around when I was in high school my mom opened her first actual commercial studio and I was just kind of helping her and then slowly we started doing workshops together doing more education together and through college I just kept helping her and then eventually I took over the business side and she takes care of the artistic side.
2:32Awesome well before we get to the business part what did you tell us about yourselves, like what's your background, who are you guys outside of the studio?
2:41Okay so I'm a mom. I have two daughters Caitlin and Elizabeth. My first thing since I was young I was an artist in my soul. I was painting everything related to arts and crafts everything that's like doing something, taking pictures, everything that's related to arts. So that's kind of my thing. I'm a perfectionist so I have some points that I need to have specific things.
3:24She's definitely a perfectionist.
3:27I actually in college I majored in Biochemistry. Ever since I was little I was sure I was going to be a doctor. Maybe it'll still happen I don't know. My boyfriend's into real estate so my life is very chaotic. I have a boxer and I love the arts but I also love science. He also has a background in science so we're always going to different fairs and we're very active in the science community as well. I guess business is a big part of my life now.
4:19So what changed the trajectory from forensics to newborn photography? Like when did you know?
4:26My art side took over my forensic side. Ever since I was young I was telling my mom I wanted to go to art school and she was like no you have to take a real job. Her parents always tell you that art is not a real job, you have to take something. So meantime I finished law school. I worked in the field twelve years but I always had that need to do something artistic in my free time. Her heart was into art.
5:13Awesome. So obviously we crossed paths a couple years ago and we crossed paths twice, right? You were students in our Mastermind and then you hired us personally to take over your marketing. Walk me through where you guys were before we crossed paths, like how was the business running before we came together or you joined the Mastermind?
5:41So we kind of got our photography side down so we did workshops. We made sure our pictures are good and then we were looking into different education or courses or things that we can do to gain more clients. We had one, two, three clients a month and that wasn't obviously profitable enough. So I remember one time I stumbled over your ads and I started looking into it and I had my consult with you and you asked me all these entry questions and then I bought your consult script and the pricing and we just kind of worked with that for a while and we were like okay this actually works. So I convinced her and we got the whole course. Now this was back in California and we actually purchased the course right before COVID. So it was twofold. It was good because I got to go through the course. We weren't working but also California wasn't looking like it was going to open soon which is true. So we were like we gotta move. We gotta go somewhere where you can work and do business. So we moved to Florida. We've never been there. I mean we've vacationed once in Florida. That's all we knew about Florida so we had one week to buy a house and find a studio and we just kind of moved and as soon as we moved here I started implementing everything in the course and we started having clients and business slowly picked up. So I was always having the ads being difficult so I was like I would hire Humberto's team. They're going to do a great job and around the time we hire your team we also hired someone to do our calls so it kind of worked out that we got a lot more leads and someone was on top of the calls and clients and that's really when our business really picked up a lot and you guys from the moment I met you your work always is impeccable. It's really good.
8:02So what was the biggest struggle with having really good work and always focusing on the photography side and then switching, what problems did you have before, like why did you have only two to three clients a month?
8:16Yeah so our work was really good but we just weren't doing any kind of marketing except on Instagram and we didn't have the funnels in place. So when people would call us or would inquire with us we didn't have that immediate communication, emails and called them right away, and the phone script. So it was a lot of lost potential clients because we didn't have all those funnels in place.
8:54And so what's the difference now? Now you guys moved to Orlando, started from scratch. Like how did that go because that sounds pretty scary?
9:02Yeah it was. But I remember when we moved and it was January and Jen was posting about her studio and she was like oh my God we did sixty K this month and I was like maybe one day. And then we ended the year, our first year in Orlando, we ended at three hundred K in sales. And then second year we were very close to five hundred. Hopefully we'll keep going up as we go. We've only been here two years so there's a lot more to build. I will say that when we moved to Orlando we attacked marketing. So beforehand before Mastermind and before you guys, our focus was perfecting the photos, the babies and stuff. When we moved to Orlando it was like okay we know how to take babies, now is the time to kill it with marketing. Expo shows, we contacted ultrasound companies, all those business related businesses that they can market for us and we can market for them and social media. And right now six months into moving to Orlando we were number one on Google so everyone that googles us, which is where most of our clients come from, we're number one. We come up. We have a lot of reviews and I guess that's what really helped us is focusing our time and energy on marketing.
10:40Well that brings me to another topic. We actually just came up with a new formula to get more reviews. So yeah reach out to Ally. It's the review Google review magic multiplier she calls it. So we'll make sure to implement that hopefully get you more reviews. Okay so that's a really big change, especially moving, and that is a really big priority that I normally tell photographers is like if you're not obsessed, it's so easy that when you start photography you're obsessed with the camera gear, those things are fun, the lighting, the Photoshop, the presets and stuff, but then we wonder like do we suck because no one's hiring us and it's like no. If you're so good at the art, if you just hyper focus the same way you're obsessed with the lighting and the props...
11:29Your mom's looking at me like that's me.
11:43The camera, the gear, the lighting, obsessing over everything and she is the one managing the business. It's true. When you're doing a session and a baby and she's like I want to get that perfect shot and I'm like no let's get all these five shots so I can sell them during the ordering appointment and we can come back to get that perfect shot.
12:10That's awesome. So tell me what was like what changed day to day, because I know we can say oh we focused on marketing and everyone feels like they focus on marketing so tell me what your days were like before and then what your days are like now, like actions and where you really spent your time?
12:31So before it was very like what prompts do we need to buy, how can we make this really cute set, and post on social media, but really just post it to make it beautiful. But nowadays it's more like when I wake up it's like who can I prospect, who's in our group, who can I message, how are our leads going? Every week we look back and see how many leads we got. It's all those things that we never used to do, never really thought about it like that. Doing calls, talking to clients, responding to emails. Beforehand it was more like how can we make this big beautiful picture and then always complaining that we don't have clients. No one's hiring us. But before I was looking at the calendar, the studio calendar was like when do we have sessions this month and now like where's my day off?
13:40Yeah yeah it's true. Like when's your day off now?
13:43Usually we have about five clients a week scattered here and there and when it's not client days it's product orders, talking to Humberto's team getting all the stuff they need and thinking in the future. One of the things I'm implementing this year is I already had a zoom with your team of everything we're going to do as far as marketing from now until December and then getting everything squared away so that when it comes time for that marketing or sale or campaign that we're doing, everything is prepared beforehand.
14:29Okay and walk me through before because I know at the time you thought you were doing marketing tasks and you were trying to get business so what were you doing and what's the biggest difference because I'm sure at the time you felt like you were really trying at it?
14:56Well we did three things that we're not doing now. The overarching thing we paid a lot of money for nothing. We used to pay Yelp like five hundred a month. Yelp was terrible. I don't know exactly how they work but we just say that they hire people to message you because we got a lot of messages but not a lot of bookings. So we paid a lot of money to Yelp. We hired someone to get us number one on Google and we kind of were but it wasn't really like that. It was one of those shady people so we paid them a lot of money. I don't know why we thought that was a good idea. So we did that and then the other things we did was we clicked promote on Instagram and we promoted a bunch of posts and we spent a lot of money on Instagram and Facebook promotions thinking that would get us clients. But obviously that's not how you get clients. So those are the three different things we were throwing money at thinking we were doing an amazing job at marketing and having no clients. All those three things were kind of not it.
16:20Okay so tell them. I kind of know what it is but tell us and obviously we're managing a lot of it as an agency but what do you have going now? What makes you so confident and I know your phone is ringing a lot and you're getting a lot of inquiries and bookings and your mom says she's looking for a day off even though we're making her work next week. But what are you guys doing now? What do you know is bringing you things now?
16:49Yeah so I get that question a lot from other photographers as well and I don't necessarily want to say it's one thing. It's always a combination of things. Obviously the campaigns are running, they're bringing us leads, they're quality leads. Our Instagram we have a big following on Instagram and I think that helps a lot. Every time we get a lead we're like follow us on Instagram. When they see we have that big following, as Jen says, women like what other women like. So when they see you have a big following they're like okay they're legit. So I think Instagram. Every time I post on Instagram I see in media like five leads. It's funny so when I slack on Instagram I'm like okay Caitlin gotta go back, post on Instagram stories, everything. And then the campaigns, always talking to your team, checking, always telling them how our leads are going every week and then always trying new things. Like every year we go to an expo that we usually book about ten to twenty people at that expo on the spot but also we book a lot of people just from follow-ups after the expo. So that's one of the things we do once a year that's really good. And just the ultrasound company, we work with the OBGYN, always following up, always putting our eggs in a lot of baskets, not in one.
18:24Yeah you actually a lot of people skip over that part of the program. They skip over partnerships.
18:32Yeah how has that gone? I know sometimes they're fruitful, sometimes someone will have run their whole business up.
18:40It's true. I would say that when we started, brand new to the industry, a lot of our clients came from the ultrasound company because we didn't have as much outreach. That was like one of the big things and a lot of clients came from there. Now it's not as many just because we're a little bit on the higher end so we get a lot less people from the ultrasound company but I'm always looking to find new boutiques and I'm actually talking to someone at a clothing boutique and her clients are on the richer side, could say. So hopefully there will be more of our perfect clients or someone who would hopefully book with us more. But yeah that's true. Partnerships were a big thing and it's really easy when you move into a place or you're just starting out where you don't have any partnerships. Partnerships are the best way to get clients right away.
19:45And also I want to add a small thing. We're coming out with a children's book with the baby.
19:53Yes. A new thing.
19:55Yeah it's our new thing and I hope in the future that will come with more products but I will not say anything right now. A children's book for your clients, not only for the clients. We'll also be selling it on Amazon.
20:08And then it does. I talked to them. Yeah so we're coming up with a baby book and that baby book has our standard studio on it, our website, our everything, all the information. So when you know, when anything happens and we'll get our name out there.
20:25Yeah and they're, I'm not sure if it's illustrations and stuff but it's a really amazing mentor who teaches photographers how to, I know who it is, Steve Sapporito, and he teaches photographers to do book projects. And obviously I know you're not going along that but if you're doing a children's book it might be a story but they sell their clients into saying participate in the book project, you'll be part of the book. So if there's any way you can do that that would be a great angle.
20:57Yeah we can look into that but maybe a little bit different. Okay so nitty gritty, what I know you said you saw ads, you tested the waters. What were your hesitations because obviously a lot of people teach marketing and they have all these things that they promised. What were your hesitations when you met us? Like is this real or not?
21:19I have that investigation in me so when she came with the idea I said let me check on them. So I needed a little bit of time to check on everything on you and Jen and everybody. And when I came up and said yeah I think that we are okay with that, so we I would say that being in that big group helped a lot seeing everyone's testimonials and how they're doing that helped a lot. You know seeing that it actually works for other people. And then from the start I kind of figured that it's like people who were saying anything negative, it was because they weren't putting the time into it and I still think to this day the more time you put into the course the more you get out of it. But one of the things is Humberto, you weren't really shooting at the time or now. And then Jen was doing Boudoir so we were like is this really going to work for babies? And at the time I don't think you had any other baby photographer. I think we were your first baby photographer that only did babies. So it was just one of those things. Will it work or not? And then once I got into the course I had to make a lot of changes to kind of make it work for us but it absolutely did because it was more the business side that we needed and everything just kind of fell into place.
22:52Yeah and the principles of the book that we're interviewing this for are just that we need to focus on getting clients, on getting inquiries and getting in front of people and then we need to focus on nurturing them. So your list could be anything, your Instagram, your TikTok, as long as you treat it like a list it works. Your Facebook group, your email list, your text list. And then getting people to pay more. So that is one topic we haven't discussed because you did mention prices. Yeah, how are prices now and what's it like just having so many more inquiries? Like you're more confident with your prices. How is that?
23:32So I would say yes we're a lot more confident and we're a lot more selective. When you start you just want bookings and sales so you just want a lot of clients to come in and then you know they'll spend a little bit or a lot, you don't really know, you just want clients. Now it's different. Now we do a lot of building over the phone and we talk about it and then we're very upfront with the investment. One thing that I was afraid to say for a long time is people spend four, five, six thousand dollars versus now it's in every call and while maybe we book just a slightest less people I can upsell them a lot more and we're not wasting time on people who don't really want to spend or have the money. So our average is around four, five hundred. It was a lot lower when we started. So really talking to those people and I actually have a little story. I told Jen when we were at her place. I had someone book and they had been trying to get pregnant. It was a long journey for them, years, too. And she booked with us and she wanted this big thing. She wanted a weekend date. She wanted all these outfits and these looks and their friends were going to come. So big session, lots of planning. But she told our booking agent in Dallas she was like I can only afford the thousand dollar package. The starting or entry door is a thousand dollars. She was like I can only afford that and that's like a little five by five book with ten pictures. So after she booked and Dallas tells me that, I go ahead and call her that afternoon and I'm like you know you want this big thing, you're not going to be satisfied if you can't only afford that and this is why. And it was also a gift for her wife so it was twofold. So we ended up refunding that client but she was very thankful to me. She was like thank you for calling me, thank you for explaining all this. I understand. I can't really afford that much more. And I don't know if you want to tell other photographers to kick their clients out but I guess the big picture is that the more you get better at it the more you can be selective with your clients and that's one of the things how we raised our average. Shooting to sell, having those photos, and then your IPAs. I've done so many of them now that it's easier. The more you do it the easier it gets. The more you learn so there's a lot of things that come into that as well.
26:27Yeah that's really awesome. Okay so here's a quick question. From when you first joined or started working with us, what is the biggest if there's just one aha moment, if there's one thing that just clicked and made everything else click or got you jump started so that you actually implemented more. Like what went off fast?
26:49There's so many aha moments. When we started, I guess the first aha moment is that you don't necessarily have to spend you know we were spending all this money on Yelp and Google and all this stuff. The big first aha moment was that you don't really have to spend money on all kinds of marketing. There's marketing out there using your list, which is what you're saying, using the Instagram list, working with your listing, kind of building rapport and prospecting. Prospecting was the first thing we did. It doesn't cost money, just costs time and that's the fastest way to put people in. So trying to figure out ways to book people without necessarily spending or throwing a lot of money out there. Partnering with other businesses. So those two things, doing things that don't necessarily cost money that gets you clients in. And then the second one was automations. I waited a long time for that one. I don't know why I have no idea and I think I waited like six months to automate everything and once I did it I was like why didn't I do this sooner? So I remember that was a big one. I was like I really need to automate like your emails, everything you can automate, automated.
28:20Who would you say this is for? Because I know I'm going to ask you about challenging parts. Who would you say it's for? There's like a newborn photographer, it was a portrait photographer thinking oh well I'm super talented I need more Photoshop lessons and then I'll start two years from now. Like who is it for?
28:45I'm confused, can you...
28:48Can you say who would you say it's for whether it's the high rollers or our marketing strategy? What photographer do you think should jump on it? Because I'm sure you meet a lot of photographers, you go to workshops, you talk to some people and you're maybe not, maybe you don't have my mindset, but who would you say it fits for or what, where yeah where should they be when they're thinking about this?
29:10That's a really good question. So I think a lot of photographers do it for the love of it, so they don't necessarily have the passion. They don't necessarily are in the mindset of turning it into a business and I have an example right here. They love doing it, they want to do it, but they are too absorbed in everything that they're self-absorbed in the articles. They forget that the business part is a big part of it.
29:45Yeah, and I think if you're doing this and you're spending all this money and your work is beautiful, you need your team. You need masterminds and you need the masses. You need that part of it. Those people, the group is really powerful too. They push you, they're always like what are you guys doing with this campaign?
30:07If this is your passion you can definitely turn it into a business with the help of it. A lot of people, one of the things I had no idea about was business. I had zero business experience and your course and your team is how my eyes opened to that world. It's like oh wow, there's all these things that you need to do.
30:32And it's funny nowadays when we go somewhere or I have a call with another business and they're implementing some of the same things. I'm like wow, okay.
30:45So this is a question for your mom because I know your mom maybe she still doesn't like the business side or the sales side of it. But tell me, what's changed for you just as an artist? Because obviously you still have the art side of it. What's changed for you just having more clients and charging more? Do you feel worse charging more?
31:09No, I don't think anybody can feel worse. I have more, I want time to do themselves because I'm like, because I'm a perfectionist, I'm always looking for a better way to take pictures, a better way to learn more about lighting, a better way to focus on other things. When you do it yourself, you cannot split into everything. You don't have time for everything because everyone has families. Besides the business, we all have families. Doing this alone, it's like instead of going forward, it's going backward.
31:55That's why I'm thinking the big thing she's getting at is like if you feel like the business is not your cup of tea, hire help. I couldn't get the ads figured out. I wasn't getting the results I wanted, so I hired to run the ads. If it's something you don't want to do, just hire someone to do it. That's one of the big things. Many people don't want to split my earnings with somebody else. That's the main thinking. Everyone says I can have that money but I don't want to give it to somebody else. But to make more money, you have to spend. To spend money, you have to give other people money to have more.
32:42I think obviously somebody might be listening like oh well, they took a course and they couldn't do the ads and stuff like that. Of course, it's something that you have to practice at and get good at. But I would say it's the same thing. You could be the best newborn instructor ever, teach somebody every button to push. When they're in the class they do it, but the moment they leave your studio, if they don't do it 24/7, if they're not thinking about it every day, if they're not involved in it when they leave, they're not going to create the exact same photos from your studio even if you gave them all the same gear and everything.
33:18So I do think there is a benefit. Yeah, you guys joined the mastermind, got results, and then you were like okay, well now we're at the level where we don't like doing it to that extent, so now we'll pass it off.
33:32Let me stop you a little bit. It's not about only not having enough time or not wanting to do it because you cannot be perfect in everything. You can be perfect in one direction. That's why when we figured out that maternity and newborn are our direction, we made everything. We studied, we perfected our thing. We are trying to be better and better and better.
34:02Even like people can do their marketing thing. They will not do as well as you do guys because you have all that. You have all the people to do it. You have your direction. You have all your strategies, everything, minds, and everything that you need to perfect. That's something that we cannot have as a one person, for example, or even two or three people. You cannot perfect everything. That's why when I say you have to split your job. You have to do your own job. You have to give another person a job to make it all together to come like a working machine.
34:42Yeah, the course is amazing. It definitely teaches you. You do an amazing job. Click this and do this and click that. Definitely. But once we got busy enough to where we could afford to hire help, we did. I think that's part of growth.
35:01So I have last question: what is next for you guys?
35:16So one of our main focuses for the next couple of years is to start doing a lot more workshops. Our big plan for the next five years is to do a world tour and teach craft to other photographers. So focusing on teaching and really developing our brand. And then also, right now we're looking at hiring another photographer so that we're able to do a lot more shoots and get in more clients. So looking to grow more.
36:01That's awesome. And it's so crazy. For you guys, I had this feeling at one point where I used to watch all these people, educators on Creative Live and YouTube. And now to be on calls with people that had their courses in 2014 and to be mingling with them and being in the same space, super cool. I'm sure you guys watched a lot of newborn photographers like Anna Brandt. It would be really cool to see yourself doing online workshops or even in person, especially shooting and stuff like that.
36:44Yeah, it's very humbling to think about that place to do it. We've come a long way and I'm excited. By the way, I'm going to point out that you guys, I have not seen this many. I don't know if it's where you guys live, but you guys are shooting celebrities. You're texting me football players. RG3, these teams, they were here for maternity and then newborn. They were actually just here this week and it was amazing. It was actually amazing talking to him. They have a lot of work and my boyfriend's into football, so they talked all about football. But just their family life and dynamic and everything. I was like, by the way, this is crazy, but did they find you on Google? How did they even find you?
37:42Did you ask? Yeah. They just Googled. She just Googled maternity photographer and we were number one. She called the studio, she scheduled the consult, she talked to Dallas, she booked. She got half of the booking rate and we didn't really look into it. Then like a month later, when she filled out our questionnaire, I have this story. I was in an ordering appointment with another client and I get this call from Dallas, our booking agent. He's also my boyfriend. I'm like, he was at home. I'm like, our dog did something? Is somebody dying? He knows I'm in an ordering appointment. Why is he calling me? I pick up and he's screaming. He's like, did you know RG3 booked with us? I'm like, I don't follow football, so I'm like, who? What? Why is this an emergency?
38:38He's like, there's a big football player, celebrity. They live in a five million dollar house. I'm like, okay, okay, I'll call you back. So it was really cool. Then we watched Monday Night Football and we're like, oh my God, he's on TV, gonna be in our studio. It was cool.
38:55I want to step back a little bit and tell you. When you asked us about how do we feel among these other big photographers like Anna Brandt, we hosted Anna Brandt a few years ago. During the time we were chatting with other photographers, she asked everyone, what is your future goal? What do you want to become in the future? What I said was, I want our studio to be the number one, the best newborn and maternity photographer of the world. That's cool. Okay.
39:44That's funny. By the way, that should be her response because that is what 99 percent of people say. And then nobody puts in the work. Nobody. People give up a little bit too early. But yeah, you guys are kicking ass.
39:55Yeah, thank you. All right guys, thanks so much for being on. I'm gonna be at your studio here in I don't know, 72 hours.
40:06Excited.
40:08All right guys, I'll see you guys on Monday and thanks so much. Thank you. Bye.