Jamie Willey of Studio 78

Within Studio78, Jamie offers several services including photography and social media consulting.  Additionally, Jamie owns Mint Magazine, Brandon’s beautiful new magazine that helps tell the story of local businesses and incorporates Jamie’s photography.

How did you get started in your business?  
Studio78 started about 10 years ago.  I used to be a steel buyer at Behlen Industries but after being on maternity leave, I really wanted something that would allow me to spend more time with my kids.  My focus initially was on wedding and private shoots but I wanted to expand it and get into the business sector.  I wanted to help local businesses get their message out there and tell their story, which led to my social media consulting and eventually Mint Magazine.  I was able to incorporate my experience in photography into both the consulting and magazine.

What is the biggest mistake you see people/businesses make on social media?The biggest mistake is usually that they don’t know who their target client is.  They post anything just to have something out there.  From my experience, this wastes their time and their customer’s time.  The customers are just going to scroll through it and not notice the value and product you are offering.

So what do you recommend?
Figure out EXACTLY who your target customer segment is and plan your posts in advance.  Take a few hours each week, plan what you would like to post, and then when the time comes everything is ready.
An example of this would be taking a few hours on Monday and planning your message and scheduling the timing of the posts.  This is much easier and more efficient than spending an hour or so trying to come up with a post every day and then just erasing it after.
I’ve found that coming up with 2-3 messages that you want to communicate to your followers each week works best.  This makes it easier to pick an appropriate picture, caption, and nail the timing of it.

How do you decide which posts to boost on social media?

Trial and error has worked the best in my experience. 
You can do an A/B test.  Put one picture with one caption and boost that.  The next week you can boost a different picture with a slight different caption and see which one gets more engagement.  That way you can determine what your customers want and what they are more engaged in.
You can also use the business page on Instagram to determine who your audience is.  From there, you can determine how to word different posts if the target customer is male, female, older, younger, etc.

What is the book or books that have most impacted your professional career?
4-hour work week by Tim Ferriss.  This really made me focus on my processes and how simple changes can make a big difference.  I refer to this book quite often just as a refresher to keep my processes in check and it serves as a great reminder.  It really made me focus on getting processes and steps put in place and cutting out any unnecessary work. 
Additionally, I really enjoyed his book called Tools of Titans.  There are many different tips and suggestions from plenty of different “titans” in numerous industries.  You might already know some of these ideas or tips, but once you find out that someone else is doing it, it kind of reassures you and can relate it to yourself.

Can you share something that you have learned in the past year that you now do regularly?
I went to a workshop last year, and one of the things that stuck out from the presenter was “when you become too casual about anything, that’s when things start to slide”.  If you don’t take things seriously, plan it, and really put effort into things… you can become too casual.
This can happen in business or life in anything from invoicing to booking appointments… you want to be casual but I’ve learned that you have to be more to the point, specific and really focus on what the clients expect from you and what you expect from them.
When you get bigger jobs and really need to be strict, it’s harder because you’re more in that casual mindset.  You need to have a balance, but really have a process in place to keep things in place.

What is the most worthwhile investments that you have made?
Every couple of years I attend a photography workshop.  These workshops are not cheap, but they are an investment.  You always need to keep learning, refresh your current knowledge, and find something that allows you to think outside of the box and change your mind set a bit.
Investing in yourself is the most important thing you can do.  If you are feeling good about yourself, your work, and your business, then it really reflects on what you give to your customers.

When you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed out, what technique do you use to get back on track?
I’m a big list person, so I will write everything down to figure out exactly where my focus needs to be.  From there I will take 2-3 of the most important things and focus on them.  Once the rest is on paper, I can completely forget about them until the most important things are taken care of.

When you started your consulting business, how did you start finding clients?

First off, I decided on what type of services I can offer.  From there, I began looking at local businesses that had good business models and then analyzed their current social media strategy/offerings.  Once I found my ideal potential clients, I set up meetings with the owners to discuss what I could provide for them.  I went to each business with a specialized plan and said, "Here’s what I can do for you, we can try it out, and if you don't see the benefit from it then we can part ways".

I used the contacts that I had already made through my previous experience.  They knew what kind of work ethic I have and what kind of work I can do for them.

In your recent experience with local businesses through the magazine or social media, what's something you've learned?

Honestly, there is so many amazing business people and offerings in Brandon for being such a small community.  I have learned different stories like Central Autobody’s or the Murray's group that most people would not know.Central Autobody is a third generation business here in Brandon. When you learn things like this you really want to support people who have been there, worked hard, and worked their whole lives to get to where they are today.The Murray's group have been around for almost 100 years and they are such a huge part of this community.  When we met with them for the magazine, they were clear that they did not want to discuss sales, products, etc.  They wanted to focus on their community involvement and how important it is to give back; such as donating $1 from every oil change to the Samaritan House (around $20k per year), they built the Murray House for cancer patients, and so many similar stories.These stories are not also well known, but the personal side of things are what can really draw a consumer into a business.

Where can people find you?

Instagram: @studio78photo 

     @studio78media

Facebook: Studio78.Brandon

Website: www.studio78.ca

Studio location: 728 10^th street, Brandon MB