Peter: I’m joined by Ibrahim Hayek of Hayek Studios. Ibrahim has an amazing story. Give us a quick intro.

Ibrahim: We’re located in New Jersey, but we shoot all over, including destination weddings. I started wedding photography around 2021, mostly second shooting, and I got a lot of help from Peter along the way. When we first connected at the end of 2021, I was about 95% second shooting, and I was working full-time as a lab tech. I studied biology. I’d always been a hobbyist photographer, and getting married sparked the idea that I could do this. Then I really started hating my nine-to-five. It felt like jail, like I was wasting my life. If I’m not mistaken, wedding photography alone is a $30 billion industry in the U.S. Get just 1% of that, and you’re set. So I started calling studios in my area to second shoot for them. But I wanted to work more with couples and make more income, because my goal was to quit my nine-to-five.

Peter: We started working together in 2022. It’s now 2024. What does business look like today?

Ibrahim: Over six figures, full-time. We have associate shooters, and I just hired my first virtual assistant, who starts next week.

Peter: A few days ago, you told me you have no doubt this business will be doing $500,000 a year within the next few years. Just a few years ago, this was only an idea.

Peter: We went back and forth for a while before you decided. What was the hesitation?

Ibrahim: Leaving a nine-to-five is scary, because it’s comfortable and secure. But as an employee, you’re just as likely to lose your job tomorrow, so it’s best to earn for yourself. I have a family, and I don’t like relying on someone else to pay me. I knew I had to do this, but I didn’t know how. You can be the world’s best photographer, but if you don’t know business, how to get clients, and how to market, you won’t succeed. I’d been in your group watching everyone’s success, so I almost had no doubt it would work. My biggest hesitation was whether I could make it happen. It was also my first time ever investing money in myself. My wife and I had a baby on the way, and I didn’t want to fail.

What finally pulled the trigger was telling myself, “If this works so consistently for everyone else, there must be a simple process anyone can implement. I just need to sit down and do the work.” Looking back, it’s funny, because I spent money on stupid stuff that gave me zero return. After investing in myself and seeing the return, I’ve kept investing in bridal shows, equipment, and now a VA to buy back my time. Before, I would have said I couldn’t hire anybody. What I learned with you and your team is still the core of what I do today. It’s simple and straightforward.

Peter: Once you’ve invested in yourself and had success with it, you realize there’s a whole economy of paying money to acquire skills. You have to turn that corner to thinking like an entrepreneur, and it’s not an intellectual thing. It has to click.

Peter: You were basically a brand-new business owner. What was that like?

Ibrahim: I had zero experience in sales or talking to people about what we offer. I was learning something new every day. Sometimes it takes a month or two to learn one thing because you have to test it. But once you learn even a small thing, it can 2x or 3x your results. It’s a patience game. Two years later, it feels like yesterday that I sat down to talk with you. Now it’s about tweaking and adjusting. A lot of the process is automated now, too. When I started, everything was manual, and the workload was huge. Now half of it’s automated, so it’s easier and I make more money.

Peter: The greatest gift we can give photographers and videographers is knowing you have dials and levers you can pull to drum up business. So many people in this industry operate by the seat of their pants. I’ve talked to big names in the industry this year who have no clients booked for next year, because they rely on word of mouth and have no real system.

Peter: What would you tell someone in your shoes two or three years ago who wants to get to six figures and quit their job?

Ibrahim: First, and this is non-negotiable, you have to put in the work. Scrolling social media gets nothing done. Second, if you’re new, nobody knows about you. People have looked at my website and said, “You look like you’d charge $10,000-plus,” but I wasn’t making any money, because nobody knew I existed. You can’t sell to people who don’t know you exist. So learn to advertise. Once they inquire, you have to show them your value, why you’re different and how you can help. If you’re good at sales, that’s a big plus. I learned both advertising and sales from you guys.

Peter: There’s no other problem to solve before six figures except client acquisition: a repeatable process to get two, three, or five clients a month. People overcomplicate it because they don’t want to do the boring work, like talking to another couple or creating another post. You didn’t have a fancy logo, the perfect Instagram feed, or elite gear. It was Facebook ads, texting every lead, and getting them on the phone.

Ibrahim: When you first showed me the KPI spreadsheet, I thought, “This looks boring.” I neglected it for a long time. On follow-up calls you’d ask, “Are you keeping your KPIs?” and I’d say, “I kind of have an idea.” But ideas don’t work. Numbers don’t lie. Now I update it every month and compare it with previous months: how many leads we got, how many we converted, and how many booked. If we’re slacking somewhere, I figure out why, test a change for a month or two, and see whether it improves.

Peter: You can’t optimize a system you have no data for. Once you can see that this much money brings in this many leads, which turn into this many calls and bookings, it becomes predictable. You’re not guessing, refreshing your inbox, or throwing marketing spaghetti at the wall, like jumping on Zola because everyone’s talking about it.

Ibrahim: Next is building relationships with venues and other vendors, which can be a very good stream of income. Now that we’re shooting more weddings and doing a great job, referrals are coming in on their own. Managing the team is also very important. I’m strict about it. If a shooter is on their phone or not present for more than five minutes, I won’t have them shoot for me. I want the couple, the guests, and the bridal party to see us working hard. I won’t think about big internal changes until we hit $200K or $300K a year. Then we’ll look at scaling to new areas.

I don’t want to depend on big-time planners, because they’d want me specifically. I want Hayek Studios to be the Apple of wedding photography, so when someone thinks, “I need a photographer,” they think of Hayek Studios. That’s a marketing and branding game. I just need to scale the team and the area.

Peter: People ask how to get in with big-shot planners. First, be so good they can’t ignore you. Planners want to work with someone who’s winning and building a name, not someone who shows up in their inbox asking to buy them coffee.

Ibrahim: My first year before working with you, I did maybe $20K, mostly second shooting. My first year working together, I did $50K to $60K. Then I decided to sit down, do the dirty work, and actually read my KPIs, and this year we’re at $115K, with 40 weddings booked for next year.

Peter: What’s your biggest advice for newer clients who are getting leads and learning the process?

Ibrahim: Nurture your leads. If they’re not ready yet, don’t be afraid to keep touching base. And if you’re not selling your team yet, sell yourself. Make couples feel like they’d die to have you at their wedding. The photography or videography is almost a byproduct. On calls, we have fun. I get to know them, understand their vision and what’s important to them, and ask “why” questions and “tell me more.” They want to feel taken care of, not like you’re counting dollars. So many couples tell me after a call, “We really felt like you weren’t just trying to book us for money.” I never bring that up. They say it on their own.

Peter: People can tell when you’re just there to book them. You can get away with going through the motions with referrals, because the trust is already there. But with someone who clicked on an ad and maybe clicked on two others, you have to slow down, nurture, build rapport, and understand them. I listen to so many surface-level sales calls where photographers only talk about deliverables and coverage. Ask why this venue, why this vibe, what it means to them, and then tell the story around what matters to them.

Peter: What’s been the most transformative thing we’ve worked on together?

Ibrahim: Learning to run ads. My new VA also does photo and video on the side and told me he wants to run ads but doesn’t want to waste money. I told him, “If you don’t do it right, you’ll waste a lot of money, and you’re going to do it wrong.” Without someone teaching you or showing you a winning campaign, you’ll test a million versions and waste thousands of dollars. The biggest waste is time, and you’ll probably give up. When I joined you, you already had a winning campaign and the whole system around it, so I never lost money on my ads. I always got my money back, and it’s given me the experience to run other campaigns that make money too.

Peter: Working with an expert collapses time and actually saves you money. A lot of people never spend enough on ads to make them work. They run an ad for five days at $10 a day and give up. You need at least $600 a month, and probably more in a market like New York and New Jersey.

Ibrahim: We’re lucky to sell a high-ticket service. One wedding, or even one engagement session, covers that.

Peter: Anything you want to add for someone who’s where you were?

Ibrahim: There are so many people and companies you can invest in, like SEO or video courses. What I really enjoyed about working with you were the one-on-ones and, honestly, the community, which goes so overlooked. I didn’t join to talk to people. I just wanted to learn. But I learned so much from the people in the community, like how to book couples as their photo and video team when they don’t have a date or venue yet. If this is in your heart, join. I guarantee that if you put in a little of the work, you’ll see a return. They say you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, so surround yourself with winners.

Peter: People come for the promise of making money and stay for the community. Going from quitting your job and learning sales and marketing to six figures and well on your way to multiple six figures has been amazing to be part of.