The Most Profitable Photographer in America | The Joy of Marketing: Sarah Petty

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Episode Description

Today, we sit down with Sarah Petty, founder of Sarah Petty Photography, a successful photography business specializing in portraiture and Joy of Marketing, which teaches photographers how to increase their profitability. She has also co-authored Worth Every Penny: Build a Business That Thrills Your Customers and Still Charge What You’re Worth and hosts the Worth Every Penny Podcast.

Sarah grew up in Illinois with a love for sports and eventually played division-one volleyball at the University of Memphis, where she majored in marketing. It was during a tumultuous time in Sarah’s pregnancy that she realized the importance of freedom and flexibility to pursue motherhood alongside her professional goals. This realization drew her towards her entrepreneurial lifestyle today.

Show Notes

The Seeds of Entrepreneurship: Sarah discusses her family life, highlighting her father’s entrepreneurial endeavors and the influence of his work ethic.

Finding Passion: Sarah explains how she fell in love with sports in school and eventually made it to college as a D1 athlete. Despite her busy schedule, how did she explore her artistic side at university?
Marketing at Coca-Cola: After college, Sarah decides to leave Memphis and build her identity outside of sports. As luck would have it, she gets a marketing position at Coca-Cola. What did this marketing position end up teaching her?
Love of Learning: Feeling a bit stagnant at Coca-Cola, Sarah takes a marketing course and eventually decides to complete a master’s degree. How does this lead into her entrepreneurial journey?
Super Saleswoman: To build sales experience and get a marketing position, Sarah began cold-calling for a newspaper, discovering the importance of relationship-building in marketing. How did she combine her entrepreneurial tendencies with her love for photography during this time?
Fighting for Family: For Sarah, having children was a physically and emotionally- taxing process. After two miscarriages, a near-death experience, and months at the hospital, what else was waiting for her on the other side?.
Reset: After having two children, Sarah knew she wanted the freedom to devote time to motherhood while still pursuing her professional goals. As she recovered from pregnancy, how did her time at home reveal photography as the perfect solution?
Start-Up: Sarah gets possession of a studio and opens Sarah Petty Photography. How does she learn to make it more profitable? And how do the 9/11 attacks affect her business just two weeks after opening?
Joy of Marketing: Sarah soon became one of the most profitable photography studios in the country and people started paying to hear her give marketing advice. In response, she created her company, Joy of Marketing to share curated marketing advice for photographers.
Worth Every Penny: With all of the success of her company, Sarah knew her wisdom was in high demand. She and her business partner set out to write their New York Times bestseller, Worth Every Penny: Build a Business That Thrills Your Customers and Still Charge What You’re Worth. How did she maintain her family-oriented values as her father went through tough times during her book-writing process? And how did Sarah’s new podcast help her promote her coaching services
Parting Words