July 28, 2025 • 33 mins
Welcome to The Whisker Report, the podcast that helps pet professionals get the purr-fect publicity! This week, hosts Mary Tan and Alexane Ricard (with producer Mark Winter from Pet Life Radio) welcome special guest Carol Arscott, an incredible pet photographer from just outside Philadelphia. Carol has raised over $80,000 for local rescues and has landed major media coverage—all through the power of compelling pet photography. Tune in as Carol shares how she built a successful business while giving back, and then turns the tables to ask us questions about how petpreneurs can boost their own buzz. Whether you're in rescue, pet products, or services, The Whisker Report is here to help you fetch the attention your mission deserves!
EPISODE NOTES: Picture Paw-fect PR: A Photographer’s Journey to Giving Back
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/whisker-report-pet-pr-publicity-pet-life-radio-original--6669416/support.
EPISODE NOTES: Picture Paw-fect PR: A Photographer’s Journey to Giving Back
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/whisker-report-pet-pr-publicity-pet-life-radio-original--6669416/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Love is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets. Welcome to
the Whisker Report.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're a new podcast dedicated to helping anyone in the
pet industry, whether you're an animal welfare or a for
profit pet company, get some pr and buzz for your organization.
Hello everyone, I'm Mary Tan, one of the hosts of
the show, along with alexand Ricard, a cat rescuer and
public relations professional who hails from France but was recently
(00:40):
in Mexico and is now in the lovely town of Vancouver, Washington.
Bone you'r Alex, you little world traveler.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So we have big news today. I was just in
Mexico for two weeks doing some TNR and I found
a little dog from.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Any Yeah, I'm going down May ninth and tenth. You
may listen to that after this to get this dog
that Alex picked for me.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, just a little straight dog we found on the
streets of Mexico. His name is Max, and he's absolutely adorable.
And I'm actually really grateful for Mary because otherwise we
would have had to put him back on the streets.
So think you Mary.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh Well, that's the mission of Whisker Media is to
give back to animals who you know, they can't take
care of themselves necessarily and they need our support. So Alex,
I just want to ask you a question. How many
animals did you did you guys spay a neoter, so
we spained a neuter around twenty a day, so I
(01:42):
think around two hundred. Wow, And these were all just
strays walking around you just go there was half of
them were strays that we did actually like go and trapped,
but half of them were also pets from very poor
area where people would go to the area and people
would just like drop them off and we would take them,
(02:03):
get them sterilized, and then the next day we'll just
bring them back to them.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
So yeah, I mean, you know, in Mexico it's kind
of like grease people have pets, but the pets do
live on the streets. They're not like, you know, like
little Katy, like Franklin who lives in your house and
sleep on your bed, like it's not like that. But yeah,
we did make a big difference. I think two hundred
animals was a lot in a few days.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So very happy, yay, well, great job, and then a
shout out to your rescue saving lives as well as
Maya Rumfos, who's here in Minneapolis. She's been a guest
on the show Pet Project Rescue.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, and we're here today with Mark Winter of pet
Live Radio.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Who gets us?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Do you eat it every week? Hey?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Mark?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Hi?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Everyone.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
I don't have a Rescue but not yet, but I
do have a pet Radio network. And you always want
to know what celebrities are coming. So let's see. We
just had on arden show on O Behave, we had
Richard Karn who you know is al Borland from the
TV show Home Improvement.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Yeah, he was fun.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And coming up on Rappaport to the Rescue, we have
Neil Patrick Harris.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh my god, I love it.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Oh wow, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Is he a big good lover?
Speaker 5 (03:23):
He is? And his husband as well.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah. I just always remember him as I used to
watch Doogie Houser all the time.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
That was a long time. That was in the eighties,
I think, right.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I know Alex wasn't even born yet.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
No, I know him for how met your mother? Right?
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Right?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
That's like is that the right one? Just a bit later?
But yeah, and today we're super lucky to have Carol R.
Scott from Carol R. Scott Photography just outside of Philadelphia.
Carol has raised more than eighty thousand dollars for her
local animal rescues and she's dozens of animals. Through her
pet photographers skills, she has gotten get me their coverage
(04:05):
for herself and her business, and she's a perfect example
of a small pet business owner who knows how to
get great PR. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
Carol, Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
I love listening to your show. I have learned so
much from the topics that you cover, and it's just
a wonderful resource to you know, small business owners like
myself that we don't have, you know, as ashorepreneur or
a small business, you don't necessarily have a team of
PR people and social media people. So just the advice
(04:35):
that I've gotten from your shows has been invaluable. Oh,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So tell us a bit about what you do. How
did you get into the pet photography business?
Speaker 7 (04:46):
So I started photographing adoptable pets, oh gosh, probably over
ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Now.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
Basically I just really have always enjoyed photography. And my
son was doing some community service for his graduation requirement
in school, and he was volunteering with a cat rescue,
and I just started taking pictures of them and I
said to the rescue, I took some photos if you
would like to use them, and they said, well, you know,
I think we're all right, we have photos. But then
(05:15):
they saw them and they said, oh, these are really nice.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
So they started using them.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
And then the animals started getting adopted faster, and other
rescues started setting my photos and they reached out, and
I started working with more and more rescues, and it
kind of blossomed from there, and then eventually I turned
it into a business, and rescue is now the cornerstone
of my business.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That is amazing, the best job in the world.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, well goes into taking pictures of an animal because
it's very different than taking pictures of a human, right.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
It is very different. And it's funny because I have
friends that photograph children and they say to me.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
How do you photograph dogs?
Speaker 7 (05:52):
That seems so hard, And I say, how do you
photograph children? You know, because children run around and you know,
I mean, some do dogs. But I've just always had
a connection with animals. Growing up as an only child,
my dog was my best friend and we spent all
our time together, and I just always had a bond
with any kind of animal. You know, if you see
(06:12):
me at a party, I'm the one in the corner
talking to the dog. And you know, I don't find
it hard. It has always been my stress relief. When
I was starting with a rescue photography, it kind of
took me away from the rest of my life and
my job at the time, and it was just fun.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
You know.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
You just make that connection with a dog, and I
like to try to bring out their personality and also
how I think they see themselves. You know, we don't
often think about how dogs view themselves, but you know,
some little dogs you can tell they think they're a
big dog, and.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Some big dogs think they're a lap dog. Like my dog.
He was trying to get in my lap right now.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
You know, I have a.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Question for you. I have been talking to a lot
of pet photographers who tell me that this is becoming
more competitive because the human photographers have found out how
profitable it can be. Would you find that in your
area as well.
Speaker 7 (07:10):
I'm starting to see a lot more photographers now. There
are for sure a lot of family photographers that will
photograph your pet if you bring them along. There's not
as many that are dedicated to just pets. You know,
that is a pretty narrow niche, but it is becoming
more and more popular and more and more mainstream. When
I first started doing pet photography, people said, that's that's
(07:30):
a thing, you know, they had never heard of it.
But now it's much more commonplace.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
They're part of.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
Your family, so why not right have them on your
wall as you would your children or your parents or
any other family member.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, to do that with the
space growing, you've got to stand out, right, and that's
where pr comes in. And Carol has had some amazing
television coverage by two stations in the Philadelphia area to
very big stations. And let me just tell you if
(08:03):
you were to buy spots on TV stations, which sometimes
I do those hits, like I'm sure in the Philadelphia
market it's like I know, like in Florida that they
were asking like seven thousand to nine thousand for a
two minute hit tell us about how you get TV
coverage to cover you and your business. Well, the first
(08:24):
one I cannot take credit for. One of my clients
nominated me for Channel six's Hometown Hero six ABC basically
they profiled people in the community that are making a
difference through you know, various causes. She nominated me and
they came out and did a story about the work
I was doing with my rescue coffee, cable books.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
And then last.
Speaker 7 (08:45):
Year I opened a studio. I had just been an
outdoor photographer and I took the plunge and opened a
studio space in media and the news came out and
did a nice story about us. And we had let's see,
we had a few dogs, a cat and in the
studio that day, so they were very interested in seeing
how you photograph a bird.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, well, you know what, we need to take a
quick break and when we come back, Carol is gonna
talk about how she got that coverage for her opening
of her studio. So stay tuned. Don't touch that computer
or whatever you listening device. You're listening to us on.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
You know the expression cats have nine lives, Well, what
if you can give them one more?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
But give them ten?
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Movement is on a mission to help give cats.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
An extra life.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
How with spee and neoter spain or nootering your cat
helps them live a longer, healthier life and it helps
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(10:01):
dot org.
Speaker 8 (10:04):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 9 (10:17):
And we're back with Carol Arscott, a wonderful pet photographer
who is just outside of Philadelphia, and she was just
telling us about the opening of ours t Joe and
how she got coverage for that.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
Yeah, so I just sent out a press release to
some local news stations and whatnot and told them about
the studio that was opening and how it was going
to play a role in my rescue work. It is
actually enabling me to photograph a lot more dogs now
for rescues. I do obviously free rescue photography for adoptable animals,
(10:49):
and in.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
Philadelphia the weather can be very iffy.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
I always say, I'm happy maybe four weeks out of
the year weatherwise, we have two good weeks in the
spring and two good weeks in the fall, and the
rest of the time is either rainy or cold or
super hot. So having the studio just gives us a beautiful,
climate controlled space and we can do photos. Rescues can
bring dogs to me because I have worked with so
(11:13):
many rescues, it's not always possible for me to get
out to each one each week.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
So typically rescues bring me.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
In when they have an older dog or a dog
that has been in the shelter for a really long
time and they need special coverage for that dog to
get them visibility and get them adopted.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So you mentioned you wrote some press releases and just
send them to the media. I want to know more
about that. How did you find out how to write
a press release? How did you know which media to
reach out to, like, what was your strategy in place
for that?
Speaker 7 (11:42):
So I threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall.
I just to everyone I could think of. And you know,
whenever you have a story about pets and rescue, I mean,
that's a really good human interest story. I've been very
fortunate to work with very generous people in terms of
the people that have supported the rescue to help me
raise so much for the different organizations. And in fact,
(12:06):
there's been a little correction since the information that I've
provided you. I just crossed one hundred thousand dollars mark
for my rescue fundraising.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Congratulations.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
So it's very exciting.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
So you know, it's really a great feel good story
because there's so much negativity everywhere you turn, so many
sad and tragic stories. Even in rescue obviously there's a
lot of tragic stories. But I like to focus on
animals living their best lives. You know, when I do
my coffee cable books, we don't tell the sad stories
because people can see that on the rescue websites and
(12:39):
learn about, you know, where the animals came from. But
I want to showcase how they have just blossomed into
these amazing family pets and they are just I mean,
I have one client whose dog has a collection of
Tiffany necklace's. I mean, this dog is she is the
queen of the household. That would be Mary's dog. That
(13:00):
the Mary could do that definitely, just so so many
amazing stories. She went from being abused and was used
as a breeder dog. She came in with very severe injuries,
and she just hit the jackpot. She's truly living her
best life.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Wow, that comes up to another kind of pr thing.
Is that a lot of shelter and rescue folks have
told me, you know, the animals tend to move faster
if the photo and the write up of the adoptable
animal is more positive. So like, if you have a
(13:35):
three legged dog, don't talk about the fact that the
dog is three legged, but all the other attributes it's
wonderful personality and that sort of thing. That kind of
sounds like what you are doing, and you're automatically doing
one of the best practices in animal welfare.
Speaker 7 (13:52):
Well, what I'm finding is that, you know, it's so true.
There was a tendency for so long for rescues to
post the sometimes gory details of where it came from
and what their situation is. And yes, it does pull
out your heartstrings. But I'm finding that a lot of
people just couldn't take seeing that in their social media
feed day in and day out, and sometimes they would
(14:12):
unfollow the rescues or just disengage because it was just
so heartbreaking for them, you know, personally, to see that.
So rather than say, you know, this dog was in
a terrible accident.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
Or whatever and only has one.
Speaker 7 (14:24):
Leg, you know that that is going to make people
wonder can I handle this dog? Is this dog going
to have issues later in life? You know, what are
the health repercussions? So what I do instead. And in fact,
since you mentioned it, three legged dog, I had one
in one of my books.
Speaker 6 (14:40):
She paddle boards.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Oh my gosh, like that.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
I don't know if you can see the photo, yeah
we can so, but yes, she was in my first
coffee table book and when I was talking to her owner,
she said, I'm training for the paddle board and I said, well,
we definitely have to go to the lake and do
her photos there. And she just jumped on that paddle
board and had the best time. So, I mean, this
(15:06):
dog does more than my four legged dogs.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
She's that is amazing. Can you tell us what was
it like to work with the Philadelphia media?
Speaker 7 (15:17):
Oh fantastic. We have so many news anchors and correspondents
that are are just really big animal advocates. They work
very closely with rescues. A lot of them host the
galas that the rescues put on, so having that voice
in the rescue community is tremendous. In fact, there was
(15:38):
a dog that was time stamped last week and a
reporter was covering that story and really just posting that
dog all over social media and the dog had until
ten am to be adopted.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
His hit.
Speaker 7 (15:50):
His time had been extended three times and that was
going to be it. That was no more extensions. A
family saw the story and drove three hours to get
that dog. So it's so not just coverage in our
local area, but putting that on social media and blasting
it out to people that you know, they may not
see the TV broadcast, but see what these news anchors
(16:12):
do and reporters do on social media is just a
tremendous way to save the animals.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, and you know, teaming up this is just another option.
But a lot of news stations will sponsor these rescue
events and gay yes, and that is an instant way
to get free publicity because they can also promote their
on air talent as well as the rescues event. And
(16:37):
then they always you know, they'll talk about it in
their morning shows or their fluffy air shows, or the
anchor will talk about it. If they're like an evening
news anchor, they'll say, like, I had the privilege of,
you know, m seeing Fido's rescue today. It was so
much fun, and they always cover it right because their
talent is involved. So that is a wonderful way to
(16:59):
try to guarantee yourself news coverage. And here in Minnesota,
we're doing a huge, you know, walk for animals right
now and the television stations, a television station and I
believe a radio station are sponsoring it. So you get
so the radio stations talking about the TV stations, you
can also include your local paper, yes, and that's a freeway.
(17:20):
And you know your local media wants to give back
to the community, and they all love animals. Who doesn't
love animals?
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Right?
Speaker 6 (17:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
A lot of the stations in Philadelphia actually have dedicated
segments every week. One is called Rescue Me, where they
will go out to a local rescue and feature some
of the adoptable dogs. So it's it's not just a
once in a while while thing, it's a weekly commitment
to them to help these animals find homes.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah. Absolutely. And one thing so Alex and I have
run into this because we pitched nationally, right, So we
provoked all the different communities We've pitched Philly, La, Chicago.
I'm trying to think. We even had one that was Portland,
Maine and Portland, Oregon. That was kind of cool because
it was for the same campaign. But I can tell
you that in order to pitch a local community, you've
(18:10):
got to have a local tie in. So one of
the things that Alex and I do is we also
work with pet brands, right, and that's a completely different
ballgame than what you guys do. It's actually, I think
harder because the compelling story, you need a story. It's
all about storytelling. But you have a local tie in.
You are the tie in to your local news and
(18:33):
they want to cover local and so so if you're
a rescuer shelter out there, you can get coverage if
you reach out to your local people. If you are
a brand, if you are a pet company that is
selling pet food, then you need to come up with
a story that is going to tie into that local community.
(18:54):
So for example, you invented a first aid kit for
pets and you have a Philadelphia dog that was saved
because of that. Then you pitch through the real people
and the real pets. And that's exactly what whether you
knew it or not, Carol, that's exactly what you did.
You have to tailor your pitches to the organization that
(19:17):
you're pitching and that's so time consuming, right Alex, And
to be honest, the news media, I'm a former reporter myself,
I really wanted to hear from the local person rather
than the PR person. So one thing you might do is,
like if you're working with a PR agency, of course,
so they'll pitch it for you, but they'd love it
(19:38):
if the you know, the person who lives and works
in the community actually actually is the one who you know,
of course is on TV. And we just did a
campaign with Pet Partners, the National Animal Therapy Pet Registry
for their Pet of the Year contest and Alex and
I pitched the local contestant who was violent test And
(20:01):
that is what you need. That's how you get the
local coverage. Course when you're pitching nationally it's much different
and it's a higher threshold too. But local news has
so much time to fill it's unbelievable.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
So what are your best tips for pitching local news
because it can be hard sometimes to find an angle,
especially if it's not I mean with rescue projects, you know,
there are things that you can put out there. But
for your average business owner that may not have a
rescue connection, what's your best advice for them to get coverage.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well, let's just start with you with pet photography. So
one thing you can do is, you know, tie yourself
into a national day, which is kind of they're kind
of made up, right, National Cat Day, National Dog Day,
And so many people right are using their cell phones.
They're using their iPhones or whatever to take pictures of
their animals. One thing you could do is pict your
(20:53):
local morning show and say, hey, I'm an expert in
pet photography. I'd love to come on and talk about
how to take great pictures of your pet with your
cell phone. You know, that's going to be something they're
going to be like, hey, that's everyone's taking. I mean,
people have more pictures of their pets than their kids
(21:13):
on their phone a lot of times. And so that's
that's one of the tips that I would suggest. You're
going to have to create something newsworthy and a storyline
or for example, you know, here's another idea a beloved
pet for maybe it's a police canine or something that
just passed, and you know, sometimes they have little memorial
(21:33):
services for them. You could offer to take photos and pictures,
and then you reach out to the local media and say, hey,
I'm going you'd have to work with, for example, the
law enforcement, but they have these little ceremonies and they
usually a lot of times I've seen they don't even
invite the media, and it's because they don't think of
it right. And so you could say, hey, I'm going
(21:55):
to go, you know, document this, and I'd invite you
to come along, and you know, you could talk about
working with nonprofits is always a good thing, and tying
in any kind of a nonprofit would be great. Or
like I make a wish kid, you know, a kid
who has cancer and has only and you could document
(22:15):
them going, you know, to different places and you could
work trying to you know, letting the media know that
you're offering this service pro bon, or do you want
to come along and you can talk about how you
give back. So giving back in philanthropy is probably one
of the best ways to promote a for profit business. Alex,
(22:37):
do you have other tips?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I think these are These are great. I think that's
exactly what you need to do. Yeah, just tie yourself
into a story. I know, Mary, we've mentioned before, but
the news jacking as well.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, So newsjacking is where you insert yourself
into the story of the day. So, for example, I
worked with an animal shelter here we had a case
where a police officer shot a dog because he felt threatened,
and it turned out like the body camera didn't quite
(23:10):
show that as well, and it was really because the
officer didn't understand the dog's behavior, Like there was a
lack of understanding of like a dog or cat, they
don't just bite you, they show signs. I mean, there's
physical signs when an animal is about to bite you.
And so we got a behaviorist to talk about this
(23:32):
on TV and then eventually the police department actually reached
out and said, hey, can you give a presentation about
dog behavior? And so it was a win win for everyone,
and people knew the shelter got great pr because they
knew that every single animal coming out of the shelter
was vetted because it went through the behavior team, which
got a lot of credibility through that. But you know,
(23:55):
whatever your business is, if you are a border a groomer,
show off your expertise, teach people what do you need
to know when you're boarding a pet or what do
you need to know for grooming your own pet? If
you're doing that, you know, even if you're a professional groomer,
giving tips on TV or in the media, it's always
(24:17):
going to help because there's always going to be people
that are like I just don't want to do it myself.
I just need somebody else to do it. Those are
just kind of some of the tips with PR and
you know you can You're great proof Carol that you
can do PR for yourself.
Speaker 7 (24:33):
Yeah, you know, it is tough as a small business
because there's just not a lot of time. I mean
when people follow their passion and go into business. You know,
when I decided I wanted to photograph dogs, I didn't
want to be an accountant and a social media person
and you know all these other hats that we wear.
I wanted to take pictures of doggies, you know. But
(24:55):
there's so much more to it that we have to
do and just trying to get education to you know,
figure out what resources are available and how we can
sort of bring this into our business and add it
as a part of our workflow because.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
You know, it's really not something that you can do
once a year.
Speaker 7 (25:11):
You have to be constantly trying to get your name
out there and get a visibility for your business.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Right, Well, we need to take a quick break, but
when we come back, we're going to get some more
tips from Carol and we'll share some as.
Speaker 10 (25:23):
Well, begging to hear more of your favorite show cool.
Speaker 11 (25:28):
Full episodes of all our shows are available on demand.
Go to pedlife Radio dot com to fed our entire
lineup of Possum ped podcasts. Also dig us up in
iHeartRadio and iTunes. Let's Talk Pats live and on demand
only from ped Life Radio.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Let's Talk Past, Let's Done Pets at Life Radio, Headline Radio.
Speaker 10 (25:52):
At live radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And we're back with Carol.
Speaker 9 (26:05):
Carol was raised around one hundred thousand dollars for animal
rescues in Philadelphia, and.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I would just love to learn more about that because
I know there's a lot of nonprofit listening to us,
and I run my own organization and we're always looking for,
you know, ways to fundraise.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
So Carol, tell us more, how.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Did you get one hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 6 (26:26):
Absolutely?
Speaker 7 (26:27):
So, there are a lot of different ways that I
fundraise around the holidays. I do Santa photos, Easter Money photos,
things like that, and a portion of that goes to rescues.
I do calendar contests that you know, raise a lot
of money in a very short period of time for rescues.
Last summer, we raised sixteen thousand dollars through one calendar
(26:47):
contest Wow, which is just really exciting, you know, And
you don't make the money really from selling the calendars.
To make the money from the voting process. People submit
photos of their pets and their friends and family vote
on them, and that's where the bulk of the money
comes from.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
Oh, okay, with.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
A rescue, But my very favorite way to raise money
is through the coffee table books. So with coffee table books,
basically there's a set number of pets that can be
in the book. I usually have about sixty dogs and
cats in the book. Typically it is with a specific rescue,
and usually it's animals that they have that they have rescued. Obviously,
(27:27):
they want to promote the animals that have come through
their organization, and so each participant pays a fee to
the rescue to be in the book. The rescue gets
one hundred percent of that money. We then set up
a time to have a session that can either be
an outdoor session or it can be in my studio,
and I've traveled to some really fun places for some
of the sessions. We've done photos all around Philadelphia, in Gettysburg,
(27:50):
in Washington, d in New York, just all over down
at their Jersey shore. So it's a really fun experience.
A lot of people have never had professional photos of
their pets.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
Some people will say, I.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
Have a million pictures on my phone, I don't need
any more photos. But then when they see the difference
with a professional photo, it's really exciting and they get
this custom artwork that they can have forever.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
So then we assemble the book.
Speaker 7 (28:15):
It takes about a year for me to do a
book project, and the proceeds from the sale of the book,
one hundred percent of that goes to the rescue as well.
Now for my last book that's actually due to come
out in June, I did something a little bit differently.
We did a cover contest to see who would be
on the cover of the book. The voting from that,
just the voting raised twenty thousand dollars, so.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
It was very competitive.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
People really wanted that cover, and in fact, this weekend
I'm doing the cover session for that. So we get
a special shot for the front and the back of
the book. So the first place gets in front of
the book, second place gets the back of the book,
and then I also make special bookmarks that get handed
out with each book, So the next five runners up
get to be on the bookmark, so they get some
recognition as well.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
People just get super excited.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
It's you know, it's really an honor to represent that
rescue on the front.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Of the book.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
And yeah, that project is approaching thirty thousand dollars now,
so it's just a tremendous amount and it's so much fun.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
I have a blast.
Speaker 7 (29:14):
The people are amazing, the animals are amazing, and we
end up with a beautiful book that people can have
on their coffee tables, give to their family or friends.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
A lot of people buy multiple copies.
Speaker 7 (29:24):
They'll buy one for their pet sitter, sometimes for their vet,
sometimes for their grammar. And it's just fun to read
the stories because each animal has their photos plus a
little blurb about them, telling their story and what kind
of life they're living now.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
So it's really an uplifting book.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Oh that's wonderful. So how do you plan on promoting
it and getting these books sold?
Speaker 7 (29:46):
So there is a link right now on the rescue
website so you can order directly from the rescue. But
my next project has just started, and this is a
little bit different. A local restaurant group approached me and so,
and we would like to partner with you. It's called
White Dog Cafe. It's a big deal in the Philadelphia area.
They're very well known, beautifully decorated restaurants all in a
(30:08):
dog theme, and they said we would like to partner
with you to do a book, which was just an
amazing honor. And all of the money from that book
is going to Alpha Bravo Canine, which is an organization
that raises and trains service dogs for veterans, and they
provide the dogs free of charge. So it's amazing the
work that they do for veterans because it normally a
(30:29):
service dog costs between twenty and thirty thousand dollars at
least that's how much a cost to just to raise one.
So to be able to support their mission through a
fun book supported by this amazing restaurant that just has
such a huge fan base in the area, it's really
just win win all around.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
That's so awesome. Well, how can people get a hold
of you and how can they get a hold of
your book? How can they pre order it?
Speaker 7 (30:57):
Sure? My website is my name Carol R dot com
and there will be a link on my website to
link out to the rescue and you can order the
book directly from them.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
And Carol, I have a last question. Do you have
any tips for any other people who'd maybe like to
start their own business take that leap of faith and
maybe they also want to add like a philanthropic approach.
Do you have any tips for them?
Speaker 7 (31:21):
My biggest tip is don't wait. I was so afraid
to take the leap. I used to be an IT
project manager, just.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
A bit different.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
I was working, you know, my regular forty hour week
job and doing pet photography on the side, but I
basically was doing a full time pet photography too. I
was just working round the clock and you know, on weekends.
And when I finally took that leap of faith, it.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Was just the best decision I ever made.
Speaker 7 (31:46):
So you really have to just trust yourself that you
will figure it out, and just get out in your
community and network and spread the word. And there are
so many people that love to support local businesses, pet businesses.
I mean, the pet community just rose by leaps and
bounds every year, and people are spending more and more
money on their pets, and just so many rescues. They're
(32:07):
all happy to receive any kind of help they can
from businesses. So if you have anything that you can offer,
I know that some I work with some other local
pet businesses that make treats and they donate some treats
to the pets. Others make callers they might donate.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
Those to the rescue.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
So there's really a way to work together with these
organizations so that it's mutually beneficial and it's all about
helping animals.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
All right, Well, that is a wrap for this show.
Thank you so much, Carol. We are so excited to
be doing this for all of you out there who
are making life better for animals like Carol is. So,
do you have a question or any kind of a
comment you want us to look at. We'll reach out
to us on Instagram or Facebook under Whisker Media and
(32:52):
we'll try to answer it in a future podcast episode.
So as we always say.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Oar blood and her smart.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Alrighty see everyone, Let's Talk Pets every week on demand
only on Petlifradio dot com.
Love is Pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets. Welcome to
the Whisker Report.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're a new podcast dedicated to helping anyone in the
pet industry, whether you're an animal welfare or a for
profit pet company, get some pr and buzz for your organization.
Hello everyone, I'm Mary Tan, one of the hosts of
the show, along with alexand Ricard, a cat rescuer and
public relations professional who hails from France but was recently
(00:40):
in Mexico and is now in the lovely town of Vancouver, Washington.
Bone you'r Alex, you little world traveler.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
So we have big news today. I was just in
Mexico for two weeks doing some TNR and I found
a little dog from.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Any Yeah, I'm going down May ninth and tenth. You
may listen to that after this to get this dog
that Alex picked for me.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, just a little straight dog we found on the
streets of Mexico. His name is Max, and he's absolutely adorable.
And I'm actually really grateful for Mary because otherwise we
would have had to put him back on the streets.
So think you Mary.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh Well, that's the mission of Whisker Media is to
give back to animals who you know, they can't take
care of themselves necessarily and they need our support. So Alex,
I just want to ask you a question. How many
animals did you did you guys spay a neoter, so
we spained a neuter around twenty a day, so I
(01:42):
think around two hundred. Wow, And these were all just
strays walking around you just go there was half of
them were strays that we did actually like go and trapped,
but half of them were also pets from very poor
area where people would go to the area and people
would just like drop them off and we would take them,
(02:03):
get them sterilized, and then the next day we'll just
bring them back to them.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
So yeah, I mean, you know, in Mexico it's kind
of like grease people have pets, but the pets do
live on the streets. They're not like, you know, like
little Katy, like Franklin who lives in your house and
sleep on your bed, like it's not like that. But yeah,
we did make a big difference. I think two hundred
animals was a lot in a few days.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
So very happy, yay, well, great job, and then a
shout out to your rescue saving lives as well as
Maya Rumfos, who's here in Minneapolis. She's been a guest
on the show Pet Project Rescue.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, and we're here today with Mark Winter of pet
Live Radio.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Who gets us?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Do you eat it every week? Hey?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Mark?
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Hi?
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Everyone.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
I don't have a Rescue but not yet, but I
do have a pet Radio network. And you always want
to know what celebrities are coming. So let's see. We
just had on arden show on O Behave, we had
Richard Karn who you know is al Borland from the
TV show Home Improvement.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
Yeah, he was fun.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And coming up on Rappaport to the Rescue, we have
Neil Patrick Harris.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh my god, I love it.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Oh wow, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Is he a big good lover?
Speaker 5 (03:23):
He is? And his husband as well.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah. I just always remember him as I used to
watch Doogie Houser all the time.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
That was a long time. That was in the eighties,
I think, right.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I know Alex wasn't even born yet.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
No, I know him for how met your mother? Right?
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Right?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
That's like is that the right one? Just a bit later?
But yeah, and today we're super lucky to have Carol R.
Scott from Carol R. Scott Photography just outside of Philadelphia.
Carol has raised more than eighty thousand dollars for her
local animal rescues and she's dozens of animals. Through her
pet photographers skills, she has gotten get me their coverage
(04:05):
for herself and her business, and she's a perfect example
of a small pet business owner who knows how to
get great PR. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
Carol, Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
I love listening to your show. I have learned so
much from the topics that you cover, and it's just
a wonderful resource to you know, small business owners like
myself that we don't have, you know, as ashorepreneur or
a small business, you don't necessarily have a team of
PR people and social media people. So just the advice
(04:35):
that I've gotten from your shows has been invaluable. Oh,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So tell us a bit about what you do. How
did you get into the pet photography business?
Speaker 7 (04:46):
So I started photographing adoptable pets, oh gosh, probably over
ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Now.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
Basically I just really have always enjoyed photography. And my
son was doing some community service for his graduation requirement
in school, and he was volunteering with a cat rescue,
and I just started taking pictures of them and I
said to the rescue, I took some photos if you
would like to use them, and they said, well, you know,
I think we're all right, we have photos. But then
(05:15):
they saw them and they said, oh, these are really nice.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
So they started using them.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
And then the animals started getting adopted faster, and other
rescues started setting my photos and they reached out, and
I started working with more and more rescues, and it
kind of blossomed from there, and then eventually I turned
it into a business, and rescue is now the cornerstone
of my business.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That is amazing, the best job in the world.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, well goes into taking pictures of an animal because
it's very different than taking pictures of a human, right.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
It is very different. And it's funny because I have
friends that photograph children and they say to me.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
How do you photograph dogs?
Speaker 7 (05:52):
That seems so hard, And I say, how do you
photograph children? You know, because children run around and you know,
I mean, some do dogs. But I've just always had
a connection with animals. Growing up as an only child,
my dog was my best friend and we spent all
our time together, and I just always had a bond
with any kind of animal. You know, if you see
(06:12):
me at a party, I'm the one in the corner
talking to the dog. And you know, I don't find
it hard. It has always been my stress relief. When
I was starting with a rescue photography, it kind of
took me away from the rest of my life and
my job at the time, and it was just fun.
Speaker 6 (06:29):
You know.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
You just make that connection with a dog, and I
like to try to bring out their personality and also
how I think they see themselves. You know, we don't
often think about how dogs view themselves, but you know,
some little dogs you can tell they think they're a
big dog, and.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Some big dogs think they're a lap dog. Like my dog.
He was trying to get in my lap right now.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
You know, I have a.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Question for you. I have been talking to a lot
of pet photographers who tell me that this is becoming
more competitive because the human photographers have found out how
profitable it can be. Would you find that in your
area as well.
Speaker 7 (07:10):
I'm starting to see a lot more photographers now. There
are for sure a lot of family photographers that will
photograph your pet if you bring them along. There's not
as many that are dedicated to just pets. You know,
that is a pretty narrow niche, but it is becoming
more and more popular and more and more mainstream. When
I first started doing pet photography, people said, that's that's
(07:30):
a thing, you know, they had never heard of it.
But now it's much more commonplace.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
They're part of.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
Your family, so why not right have them on your
wall as you would your children or your parents or
any other family member.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, to do that with the
space growing, you've got to stand out, right, and that's
where pr comes in. And Carol has had some amazing
television coverage by two stations in the Philadelphia area to
very big stations. And let me just tell you if
(08:03):
you were to buy spots on TV stations, which sometimes
I do those hits, like I'm sure in the Philadelphia
market it's like I know, like in Florida that they
were asking like seven thousand to nine thousand for a
two minute hit tell us about how you get TV
coverage to cover you and your business. Well, the first
(08:24):
one I cannot take credit for. One of my clients
nominated me for Channel six's Hometown Hero six ABC basically
they profiled people in the community that are making a
difference through you know, various causes. She nominated me and
they came out and did a story about the work
I was doing with my rescue coffee, cable books.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
And then last.
Speaker 7 (08:45):
Year I opened a studio. I had just been an
outdoor photographer and I took the plunge and opened a
studio space in media and the news came out and
did a nice story about us. And we had let's see,
we had a few dogs, a cat and in the
studio that day, so they were very interested in seeing
how you photograph a bird.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yeah, well, you know what, we need to take a
quick break and when we come back, Carol is gonna
talk about how she got that coverage for her opening
of her studio. So stay tuned. Don't touch that computer
or whatever you listening device. You're listening to us on.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
You know the expression cats have nine lives, Well, what
if you can give them one more?
Speaker 5 (09:33):
But give them ten?
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Movement is on a mission to help give cats.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
An extra life.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
How with spee and neoter spain or nootering your cat
helps them live a longer, healthier life and it helps
control free roaming cat populations too. Learn more about the
benefits of spee and neoter and meet Scooter, the neotered
cat at Give them ten dot org. That's give them
(10:01):
dot org.
Speaker 8 (10:04):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 9 (10:17):
And we're back with Carol Arscott, a wonderful pet photographer
who is just outside of Philadelphia, and she was just
telling us about the opening of ours t Joe and
how she got coverage for that.
Speaker 7 (10:28):
Yeah, so I just sent out a press release to
some local news stations and whatnot and told them about
the studio that was opening and how it was going
to play a role in my rescue work. It is
actually enabling me to photograph a lot more dogs now
for rescues. I do obviously free rescue photography for adoptable animals,
(10:49):
and in.
Speaker 6 (10:50):
Philadelphia the weather can be very iffy.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
I always say, I'm happy maybe four weeks out of
the year weatherwise, we have two good weeks in the
spring and two good weeks in the fall, and the
rest of the time is either rainy or cold or
super hot. So having the studio just gives us a beautiful,
climate controlled space and we can do photos. Rescues can
bring dogs to me because I have worked with so
(11:13):
many rescues, it's not always possible for me to get
out to each one each week.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
So typically rescues bring me.
Speaker 7 (11:19):
In when they have an older dog or a dog
that has been in the shelter for a really long
time and they need special coverage for that dog to
get them visibility and get them adopted.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So you mentioned you wrote some press releases and just
send them to the media. I want to know more
about that. How did you find out how to write
a press release? How did you know which media to
reach out to, like, what was your strategy in place
for that?
Speaker 7 (11:42):
So I threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall.
I just to everyone I could think of. And you know,
whenever you have a story about pets and rescue, I mean,
that's a really good human interest story. I've been very
fortunate to work with very generous people in terms of
the people that have supported the rescue to help me
raise so much for the different organizations. And in fact,
(12:06):
there's been a little correction since the information that I've
provided you. I just crossed one hundred thousand dollars mark
for my rescue fundraising.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Congratulations.
Speaker 6 (12:16):
So it's very exciting.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
So you know, it's really a great feel good story
because there's so much negativity everywhere you turn, so many
sad and tragic stories. Even in rescue obviously there's a
lot of tragic stories. But I like to focus on
animals living their best lives. You know, when I do
my coffee cable books, we don't tell the sad stories
because people can see that on the rescue websites and
(12:39):
learn about, you know, where the animals came from. But
I want to showcase how they have just blossomed into
these amazing family pets and they are just I mean,
I have one client whose dog has a collection of
Tiffany necklace's. I mean, this dog is she is the
queen of the household. That would be Mary's dog. That
(13:00):
the Mary could do that definitely, just so so many
amazing stories. She went from being abused and was used
as a breeder dog. She came in with very severe injuries,
and she just hit the jackpot. She's truly living her
best life.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Wow, that comes up to another kind of pr thing.
Is that a lot of shelter and rescue folks have
told me, you know, the animals tend to move faster
if the photo and the write up of the adoptable
animal is more positive. So like, if you have a
(13:35):
three legged dog, don't talk about the fact that the
dog is three legged, but all the other attributes it's
wonderful personality and that sort of thing. That kind of
sounds like what you are doing, and you're automatically doing
one of the best practices in animal welfare.
Speaker 7 (13:52):
Well, what I'm finding is that, you know, it's so true.
There was a tendency for so long for rescues to
post the sometimes gory details of where it came from
and what their situation is. And yes, it does pull
out your heartstrings. But I'm finding that a lot of
people just couldn't take seeing that in their social media
feed day in and day out, and sometimes they would
(14:12):
unfollow the rescues or just disengage because it was just
so heartbreaking for them, you know, personally, to see that.
So rather than say, you know, this dog was in
a terrible accident.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
Or whatever and only has one.
Speaker 7 (14:24):
Leg, you know that that is going to make people
wonder can I handle this dog? Is this dog going
to have issues later in life? You know, what are
the health repercussions? So what I do instead. And in fact,
since you mentioned it, three legged dog, I had one
in one of my books.
Speaker 6 (14:40):
She paddle boards.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Oh my gosh, like that.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
I don't know if you can see the photo, yeah
we can so, but yes, she was in my first
coffee table book and when I was talking to her owner,
she said, I'm training for the paddle board and I said, well,
we definitely have to go to the lake and do
her photos there. And she just jumped on that paddle
board and had the best time. So, I mean, this
(15:06):
dog does more than my four legged dogs.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
She's that is amazing. Can you tell us what was
it like to work with the Philadelphia media?
Speaker 7 (15:17):
Oh fantastic. We have so many news anchors and correspondents
that are are just really big animal advocates. They work
very closely with rescues. A lot of them host the
galas that the rescues put on, so having that voice
in the rescue community is tremendous. In fact, there was
(15:38):
a dog that was time stamped last week and a
reporter was covering that story and really just posting that
dog all over social media and the dog had until
ten am to be adopted.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
His hit.
Speaker 7 (15:50):
His time had been extended three times and that was
going to be it. That was no more extensions. A
family saw the story and drove three hours to get
that dog. So it's so not just coverage in our
local area, but putting that on social media and blasting
it out to people that you know, they may not
see the TV broadcast, but see what these news anchors
(16:12):
do and reporters do on social media is just a
tremendous way to save the animals.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, and you know, teaming up this is just another option.
But a lot of news stations will sponsor these rescue
events and gay yes, and that is an instant way
to get free publicity because they can also promote their
on air talent as well as the rescues event. And
(16:37):
then they always you know, they'll talk about it in
their morning shows or their fluffy air shows, or the
anchor will talk about it. If they're like an evening
news anchor, they'll say, like, I had the privilege of,
you know, m seeing Fido's rescue today. It was so
much fun, and they always cover it right because their
talent is involved. So that is a wonderful way to
(16:59):
try to guarantee yourself news coverage. And here in Minnesota,
we're doing a huge, you know, walk for animals right
now and the television stations, a television station and I
believe a radio station are sponsoring it. So you get
so the radio stations talking about the TV stations, you
can also include your local paper, yes, and that's a freeway.
(17:20):
And you know your local media wants to give back
to the community, and they all love animals. Who doesn't
love animals?
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Right?
Speaker 6 (17:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
A lot of the stations in Philadelphia actually have dedicated
segments every week. One is called Rescue Me, where they
will go out to a local rescue and feature some
of the adoptable dogs. So it's it's not just a
once in a while while thing, it's a weekly commitment
to them to help these animals find homes.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah. Absolutely. And one thing so Alex and I have
run into this because we pitched nationally, right, So we
provoked all the different communities We've pitched Philly, La, Chicago.
I'm trying to think. We even had one that was Portland,
Maine and Portland, Oregon. That was kind of cool because
it was for the same campaign. But I can tell
you that in order to pitch a local community, you've
(18:10):
got to have a local tie in. So one of
the things that Alex and I do is we also
work with pet brands, right, and that's a completely different
ballgame than what you guys do. It's actually, I think
harder because the compelling story, you need a story. It's
all about storytelling. But you have a local tie in.
You are the tie in to your local news and
(18:33):
they want to cover local and so so if you're
a rescuer shelter out there, you can get coverage if
you reach out to your local people. If you are
a brand, if you are a pet company that is
selling pet food, then you need to come up with
a story that is going to tie into that local community.
(18:54):
So for example, you invented a first aid kit for
pets and you have a Philadelphia dog that was saved
because of that. Then you pitch through the real people
and the real pets. And that's exactly what whether you
knew it or not, Carol, that's exactly what you did.
You have to tailor your pitches to the organization that
(19:17):
you're pitching and that's so time consuming, right Alex, And
to be honest, the news media, I'm a former reporter myself,
I really wanted to hear from the local person rather
than the PR person. So one thing you might do is,
like if you're working with a PR agency, of course,
so they'll pitch it for you, but they'd love it
(19:38):
if the you know, the person who lives and works
in the community actually actually is the one who you know,
of course is on TV. And we just did a
campaign with Pet Partners, the National Animal Therapy Pet Registry
for their Pet of the Year contest and Alex and
I pitched the local contestant who was violent test And
(20:01):
that is what you need. That's how you get the
local coverage. Course when you're pitching nationally it's much different
and it's a higher threshold too. But local news has
so much time to fill it's unbelievable.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
So what are your best tips for pitching local news
because it can be hard sometimes to find an angle,
especially if it's not I mean with rescue projects, you know,
there are things that you can put out there. But
for your average business owner that may not have a
rescue connection, what's your best advice for them to get coverage.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well, let's just start with you with pet photography. So
one thing you can do is, you know, tie yourself
into a national day, which is kind of they're kind
of made up, right, National Cat Day, National Dog Day,
And so many people right are using their cell phones.
They're using their iPhones or whatever to take pictures of
their animals. One thing you could do is pict your
(20:53):
local morning show and say, hey, I'm an expert in
pet photography. I'd love to come on and talk about
how to take great pictures of your pet with your
cell phone. You know, that's going to be something they're
going to be like, hey, that's everyone's taking. I mean,
people have more pictures of their pets than their kids
(21:13):
on their phone a lot of times. And so that's
that's one of the tips that I would suggest. You're
going to have to create something newsworthy and a storyline
or for example, you know, here's another idea a beloved
pet for maybe it's a police canine or something that
just passed, and you know, sometimes they have little memorial
(21:33):
services for them. You could offer to take photos and pictures,
and then you reach out to the local media and say, hey,
I'm going you'd have to work with, for example, the
law enforcement, but they have these little ceremonies and they
usually a lot of times I've seen they don't even
invite the media, and it's because they don't think of
it right. And so you could say, hey, I'm going
(21:55):
to go, you know, document this, and I'd invite you
to come along, and you know, you could talk about
working with nonprofits is always a good thing, and tying
in any kind of a nonprofit would be great. Or
like I make a wish kid, you know, a kid
who has cancer and has only and you could document
(22:15):
them going, you know, to different places and you could
work trying to you know, letting the media know that
you're offering this service pro bon, or do you want
to come along and you can talk about how you
give back. So giving back in philanthropy is probably one
of the best ways to promote a for profit business. Alex,
(22:37):
do you have other tips?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I think these are These are great. I think that's
exactly what you need to do. Yeah, just tie yourself
into a story. I know, Mary, we've mentioned before, but
the news jacking as well.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, So newsjacking is where you insert yourself
into the story of the day. So, for example, I
worked with an animal shelter here we had a case
where a police officer shot a dog because he felt threatened,
and it turned out like the body camera didn't quite
(23:10):
show that as well, and it was really because the
officer didn't understand the dog's behavior, Like there was a
lack of understanding of like a dog or cat, they
don't just bite you, they show signs. I mean, there's
physical signs when an animal is about to bite you.
And so we got a behaviorist to talk about this
(23:32):
on TV and then eventually the police department actually reached
out and said, hey, can you give a presentation about
dog behavior? And so it was a win win for everyone,
and people knew the shelter got great pr because they
knew that every single animal coming out of the shelter
was vetted because it went through the behavior team, which
got a lot of credibility through that. But you know,
(23:55):
whatever your business is, if you are a border a groomer,
show off your expertise, teach people what do you need
to know when you're boarding a pet or what do
you need to know for grooming your own pet? If
you're doing that, you know, even if you're a professional groomer,
giving tips on TV or in the media, it's always
(24:17):
going to help because there's always going to be people
that are like I just don't want to do it myself.
I just need somebody else to do it. Those are
just kind of some of the tips with PR and
you know you can You're great proof Carol that you
can do PR for yourself.
Speaker 7 (24:33):
Yeah, you know, it is tough as a small business
because there's just not a lot of time. I mean
when people follow their passion and go into business. You know,
when I decided I wanted to photograph dogs, I didn't
want to be an accountant and a social media person
and you know all these other hats that we wear.
I wanted to take pictures of doggies, you know. But
(24:55):
there's so much more to it that we have to
do and just trying to get education to you know,
figure out what resources are available and how we can
sort of bring this into our business and add it
as a part of our workflow because.
Speaker 6 (25:08):
You know, it's really not something that you can do
once a year.
Speaker 7 (25:11):
You have to be constantly trying to get your name
out there and get a visibility for your business.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Right, Well, we need to take a quick break, but
when we come back, we're going to get some more
tips from Carol and we'll share some as.
Speaker 10 (25:23):
Well, begging to hear more of your favorite show cool.
Speaker 11 (25:28):
Full episodes of all our shows are available on demand.
Go to pedlife Radio dot com to fed our entire
lineup of Possum ped podcasts. Also dig us up in
iHeartRadio and iTunes. Let's Talk Pats live and on demand
only from ped Life Radio.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Let's Talk Past, Let's Done Pets at Life Radio, Headline Radio.
Speaker 10 (25:52):
At live radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And we're back with Carol.
Speaker 9 (26:05):
Carol was raised around one hundred thousand dollars for animal
rescues in Philadelphia, and.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I would just love to learn more about that because
I know there's a lot of nonprofit listening to us,
and I run my own organization and we're always looking for,
you know, ways to fundraise.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
So Carol, tell us more, how.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Did you get one hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 6 (26:26):
Absolutely?
Speaker 7 (26:27):
So, there are a lot of different ways that I
fundraise around the holidays. I do Santa photos, Easter Money photos,
things like that, and a portion of that goes to rescues.
I do calendar contests that you know, raise a lot
of money in a very short period of time for rescues.
Last summer, we raised sixteen thousand dollars through one calendar
(26:47):
contest Wow, which is just really exciting, you know, And
you don't make the money really from selling the calendars.
To make the money from the voting process. People submit
photos of their pets and their friends and family vote
on them, and that's where the bulk of the money
comes from.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
Oh, okay, with.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
A rescue, But my very favorite way to raise money
is through the coffee table books. So with coffee table books,
basically there's a set number of pets that can be
in the book. I usually have about sixty dogs and
cats in the book. Typically it is with a specific rescue,
and usually it's animals that they have that they have rescued. Obviously,
(27:27):
they want to promote the animals that have come through
their organization, and so each participant pays a fee to
the rescue to be in the book. The rescue gets
one hundred percent of that money. We then set up
a time to have a session that can either be
an outdoor session or it can be in my studio,
and I've traveled to some really fun places for some
of the sessions. We've done photos all around Philadelphia, in Gettysburg,
(27:50):
in Washington, d in New York, just all over down
at their Jersey shore. So it's a really fun experience.
A lot of people have never had professional photos of
their pets.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
Some people will say, I.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
Have a million pictures on my phone, I don't need
any more photos. But then when they see the difference
with a professional photo, it's really exciting and they get
this custom artwork that they can have forever.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
So then we assemble the book.
Speaker 7 (28:15):
It takes about a year for me to do a
book project, and the proceeds from the sale of the book,
one hundred percent of that goes to the rescue as well.
Now for my last book that's actually due to come
out in June, I did something a little bit differently.
We did a cover contest to see who would be
on the cover of the book. The voting from that,
just the voting raised twenty thousand dollars, so.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
It was very competitive.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
People really wanted that cover, and in fact, this weekend
I'm doing the cover session for that. So we get
a special shot for the front and the back of
the book. So the first place gets in front of
the book, second place gets the back of the book,
and then I also make special bookmarks that get handed
out with each book, So the next five runners up
get to be on the bookmark, so they get some
recognition as well.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
People just get super excited.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
It's you know, it's really an honor to represent that
rescue on the front.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Of the book.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
And yeah, that project is approaching thirty thousand dollars now,
so it's just a tremendous amount and it's so much fun.
Speaker 6 (29:13):
I have a blast.
Speaker 7 (29:14):
The people are amazing, the animals are amazing, and we
end up with a beautiful book that people can have
on their coffee tables, give to their family or friends.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
A lot of people buy multiple copies.
Speaker 7 (29:24):
They'll buy one for their pet sitter, sometimes for their vet,
sometimes for their grammar. And it's just fun to read
the stories because each animal has their photos plus a
little blurb about them, telling their story and what kind
of life they're living now.
Speaker 6 (29:39):
So it's really an uplifting book.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Oh that's wonderful. So how do you plan on promoting
it and getting these books sold?
Speaker 7 (29:46):
So there is a link right now on the rescue
website so you can order directly from the rescue. But
my next project has just started, and this is a
little bit different. A local restaurant group approached me and so,
and we would like to partner with you. It's called
White Dog Cafe. It's a big deal in the Philadelphia area.
They're very well known, beautifully decorated restaurants all in a
(30:08):
dog theme, and they said we would like to partner
with you to do a book, which was just an
amazing honor. And all of the money from that book
is going to Alpha Bravo Canine, which is an organization
that raises and trains service dogs for veterans, and they
provide the dogs free of charge. So it's amazing the
work that they do for veterans because it normally a
(30:29):
service dog costs between twenty and thirty thousand dollars at
least that's how much a cost to just to raise one.
So to be able to support their mission through a
fun book supported by this amazing restaurant that just has
such a huge fan base in the area, it's really
just win win all around.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
That's so awesome. Well, how can people get a hold
of you and how can they get a hold of
your book? How can they pre order it?
Speaker 7 (30:57):
Sure? My website is my name Carol R dot com
and there will be a link on my website to
link out to the rescue and you can order the
book directly from them.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
And Carol, I have a last question. Do you have
any tips for any other people who'd maybe like to
start their own business take that leap of faith and
maybe they also want to add like a philanthropic approach.
Do you have any tips for them?
Speaker 7 (31:21):
My biggest tip is don't wait. I was so afraid
to take the leap. I used to be an IT
project manager, just.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
A bit different.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
I was working, you know, my regular forty hour week
job and doing pet photography on the side, but I
basically was doing a full time pet photography too. I
was just working round the clock and you know, on weekends.
And when I finally took that leap of faith, it.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Was just the best decision I ever made.
Speaker 7 (31:46):
So you really have to just trust yourself that you
will figure it out, and just get out in your
community and network and spread the word. And there are
so many people that love to support local businesses, pet businesses.
I mean, the pet community just rose by leaps and
bounds every year, and people are spending more and more
money on their pets, and just so many rescues. They're
(32:07):
all happy to receive any kind of help they can
from businesses. So if you have anything that you can offer,
I know that some I work with some other local
pet businesses that make treats and they donate some treats
to the pets. Others make callers they might donate.
Speaker 6 (32:21):
Those to the rescue.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
So there's really a way to work together with these
organizations so that it's mutually beneficial and it's all about
helping animals.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
All right, Well, that is a wrap for this show.
Thank you so much, Carol. We are so excited to
be doing this for all of you out there who
are making life better for animals like Carol is. So,
do you have a question or any kind of a
comment you want us to look at. We'll reach out
to us on Instagram or Facebook under Whisker Media and
(32:52):
we'll try to answer it in a future podcast episode.
So as we always say.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Oar blood and her smart.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Alrighty see everyone, Let's Talk Pets every week on demand
only on Petlifradio dot com.
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