Recorded: Welcome to The ReWork with Allison Tyler Jones, a podcast dedicated to inspiring portrait photographers to uniquely brand, profitably price, and confidently sell their best work. Allison has been doing just that for the last 15 years, and she’s proven that it’s possible to create unforgettable art and run a portrait business that supports your family and your dreams. All it takes is a little rework. Episodes will include interviews with experts from in and outside of the photo industry, many workshops and behind the scenes secrets that Allison uses in her portrait studio every single day. She will challenge your thinking and inspire your confidence to create a profitable, sustainable portrait business you love through continually refining and reworking your business. Let’s do The ReWork.
Allison Tyler Jones: Hi friends, and welcome back to The ReWork. I’m a big believer in the idea that readers are leaders. I can attribute so much of my success in business and in just life to the continued pursuit of learning through reading, and I’ve wanted to bring books into The ReWork podcast in a more meaningful way than we have in the past. We’ve done some book discussions before, but I think that it would be helpful to go more in depth on some specific books that have really made a difference in my business.
Allison Tyler Jones: So this episode is going to be the first in our Rework book club series and these episodes we’re going to break down favorite business books, how we’ve applied the concepts in our day-to-day business at the Portrait Studio. So for this first episode, I’m going to look at one of my all-time favorite books Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley. This book has so many great nuggets of wisdom that I have found to be true in our business, and I’m going to explore some of my favorite concepts from the book and exactly how we’ve applied those in our portrait business. So let’s do it.
Allison Tyler Jones: Often when I post about books that I’m reading on Instagram, as I am wont to do on occasion, people will ask me, “how do you find the time to read so much?” And my reply is that there really isn’t any such thing as found time in this world, especially if you’re a mom and a business owner. I have to make the time to read. But I love to read, so I’m motivated to read. It’s not a happy day for me if I’m not reading at some point during the day. Now, if that’s not you, I would suggest that you find a way to make reading easier for you. So enter technology and reading apps. You can buy books or get them from the library. The great thing about most backlist titles is that they’re easier to get from the library because they aren’t brand new with everyone clamoring to get them. I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.
Allison Tyler Jones: I’ve always got a book going either on my Kindle app on my phone, or Audible apps on my phone, or less common, an actual physical book. The Kindle app makes me so happy because I can have my highlighted passages. You can highlight, and then you have a little notebook within each book that has everything that you’ve highlighted in that. So if I’m having a discussion with another photographer, another business owner about a book, I can pull that up at dinner, whatever, and I have all my favorite quotes highlighted right there. Some books I love so much that I have in all three formats, Kindle app, Audible, and the actual physical copy because I still like to physically highlight and make notes in the margins. It’s very satisfying and that usually will be like a favorite business book will be all three versions.
Allison Tyler Jones: So the book that I’m talking about today Oversubscribed, How to Get People Lining Up to Do Business with You by Daniel Priestley. This is a title that I own in all three formats. Oversubscribed is what is in the publishing industry, would be called a backlist title. I mentioned that word before, meaning it’s not brand new this year. Oversubscribed was published initially in 2015 by Daniel Priestley and he’s an entrepreneur and author who has written several books on entrepreneurship and business. And a second edition of this book was published in 2020. The blurb, I love. The blurb says, “how would it feel to turn away business because you have too many customers wanting to buy?”. So the concept of the book is to show the reader how to get their buyer’s attention and build a business and a brand that people will flock to. There are so many good concepts in this book, but what I want to highlight for this particular episode, this book review, and for you to apply are the clear concepts about defining your capacity, not trying to be for everyone and creating your philosophy about how you do business.
Allison Tyler Jones: So define your capacity, how much work you can realistically take on and gearing your marketing and branding efforts to that reality versus we’ll take anyone anytime. Not trying to be for everyone. This is hard, especially when starting out new in business. We don’t really know who are going to be our best clients yet, so then we cast the net very wide, but we need to narrow that net as early and often as we can if we want to be oversubscribed. Number three, creating your philosophy about how you do business and why. In other words, your rules of engagement for your business and sticking to those rules so that you can provide a great experience for a few clients who love you and really get you rather than trying to appeal to and serve everyone, which actually is impossible.
Allison Tyler Jones: So let’s start with the first, defining your capacity. Daniel Priestley defines capacity in a very specific way, and I love the way he describes this. “Capacity is based on your ability to deliver a full and remarkable solution to a person who can pay for it at a price that’s profitable.” Okay, so I’m going to read that again. “Capacity is based upon your ability to deliver a full and remarkable solution to a person who can pay for it at a price that’s profitable.” So number one, full and remarkable. Is what you are offering a full and remarkable service? And if not, what do you need to do to make it so? It’s not enough to simply satisfy. It needs to be good enough to be remarked upon. Remarkable. Do you hear clients remarking on anything in your business during their experience with you? This is a really good place to start when you think about what do I do that’s remarkable? Well, listen to what your clients remark upon and rather than trying to create something that you think people will like, listen to what they’re actually saying and then double down on those things.
Allison Tyler Jones: Number two, person who can pay for it. Are you connecting with prospective clients who can, and I would add, want to afford what you do to people who value what you do and are willing to pay for it, and then three at a price that is profitable to your business. So those are three really important things, full and remarkable solution to a person who can pay for it at a price that’s profitable. So that is what he calls your core offering. So in our business that would be family portraits. Our core offering is wall art of families. In order to deliver full and remarkable results for our clients, we have found that it takes approximately 12 to 15 hours or more per session.
Allison Tyler Jones: Now that’s phone calls, consultations, the session itself, sales meetings, the production, retouching, album design, holiday card design, proofing, et cetera, delivery and installation. So 12 to 15 hours, that’s to produce a family portrait session. With a single photographer, we are really busy at 12 to 15 sessions per month. That’s usually what we’re shooting in the busy season, maybe 15 to 20 sessions in October, November. That’s when it gets crazy busy. Of course I can shoot more than that, but can I deliver a full and remarkable solution for more than that? Not without creating more capacity, so either more photographers or something. I have learned again and again that that number of right around a hundred sessions in a year for a single photographer is the sweet spot. That allows me to have a life, it allows me to spend a lot of time with each individual client and give them a full and remarkable experience and a full and remarkable product for them to have on their walls.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, what’s your core offering? Do you know how much time it’s taking you per client? What is your capacity? Rather than thinking, “I just need more clients, I just need more clients, I just need more”. Well, do you really need more or do you just need better? And so think about that when you’re thinking, “I just need to book every minute and be shooting every minute”. Well, who’s going to produce it? How long is that going to take? And are you going to be able to give a full and remarkable solution to each one of those clients?
Allison Tyler Jones: The next concept, you don’t need everyone. You don’t need everyone because you can’t even serve everyone. Daniel Priestley says, “it’s a mistake to focus on the entire marketplace concerned about what the majority will pay rather than finding a small group of people who really value what you offer.”
Allison Tyler Jones: He contends that focus on the wider marketplace leads to mediocrity or a race to the average. To me, what this means is I don’t want to talk to everyone and I don’t want to sound like everyone. So marketing like big corporations, they’re always running deals, promos, discounts, buy this, get this. They’re talking to everyone. They’re casting a wide net. They have huge marketing budgets, huge marketing departments. They’re spending millions if not billions of dollars on every channel known to man. I don’t have that kind of money. I don’t have that kind of bandwidth. I don’t have that kind of time. So I don’t want to talk to everyone. I want to speak to a specific person. I want to focus on in every post that I post on social media and every ad that I create, I want to speak to a specific person because I know that the more specific my message, the easier it is for that small group of people to find me.
Allison Tyler Jones: Daniel Priestley in the book says, “your value is much higher than you think to a small number of people”, and that is absolutely true. You know this. There are just people in this world that just love pictures, even though we don’t like to use that word, but you know it’s true. That’s the words that they use. “Oh, I just love pictures. I just love photos of my family”. Daniel Priestley says, “turn your attention to those people who find you highly valuable and then serve them better than anyone else can. You are a market of one. Create your own market and build your own group of loyal fans, loyal to your business, your products, your personality and your philosophy. These are the people that get you.” So my application of that concept is that when I advertise or post on social media, I am speaking to a mom, usually, who loves her kids, loves images of her kids, but also loves her home and likes to spend money on decorating her home.
Allison Tyler Jones: She wants portraits of her kids that aren’t the usual. She wants something different, but not just trendy. She wants something authentic. She needs to see meaning and personality and authenticity. She needs to see her true kids. So when I post on Instagram, I’m talking to her about those specific things that she loves and sees every day in her kids and how we provide those things and why that makes her life better. That means I’m willing to alienate someone who is looking for just many sessions or a digital file of family portraits on location so that they can create their own holiday cards out of whatever files I’m going to sell them. That’s not what I’m doing. So the more specific you get, it can get scary because you are saying, “I do this and by definition I don’t do this other thing”. And that’s where people end up talking to everybody is because they don’t want to alienate anybody.
Allison Tyler Jones: But you actually have to. You have to be very clear about what it is that you’re doing and by definition what it is that you are not doing. Which leads to the third point in this book, which is the power of having a philosophy. Now, Daniel Priestley says, “not everyone will agree, in fact they shouldn’t. You don’t fade into the background because you’re like everyone else, strongly held beliefs about what you do are attractive and repellent”. He says, “set your boundaries and your terms. Protect your space so you can deliver something special”. I’m going to read that again. “Set your boundaries and your terms. Protect your space so you can deliver something special”.
Allison Tyler Jones: So you should have a philosophy. What is yours? We hear a lot about having a story. There’s been a lot in the ether about story brand and a lot of story type things. So what’s your story? That’s another way of saying you have a philosophy. I think having a philosophy is very similar to having a story, but it’s more powerful. It’s why you do what you do and how you think it should be done.
Allison Tyler Jones: If you’re a portrait photographer, you know the next few months are going to be crazy. This is our busy season and how to make the most of that busy season is to make sure that our client communication is in order, that we are not having clients showing up with the wrong clothing, that we are not having clients shocked in our sales appointments by our pricing and needing to go home and measure or going home and asking their husband, and then sales burning down and our clients not getting what they need and we not being able to build a sustainable business.
Allison Tyler Jones: So how are we going to make sure that this season is the most successful that it possibly can be? Well, it starts by getting on the same page with your clients so that nothing is left to chance. And how I’ve done this is that I’ve spent the last 13 years revising my own internal consultation form, which by the way, you can download the consultation form that I use in my business absolutely free.
Allison Tyler Jones: But I realized after tweaking that form for about 13 years, that I needed something more, and it wasn’t just a pretty brochure and it wasn’t a price list with no context because we all know you can send a price list to somebody and they’re still shocked by the price because they never looked at it or they have no idea what those prices even mean. It’s happened to all of us. What I realized is I needed a single printed piece for my client to take away with them that would leave nothing to chance and that it would allow me to educate my clients about the price range of my products. It would help them to understand what we would and wouldn’t be shooting for during their portrait session, like actually creating a game plan for what is it that we’re actually going to be shooting for and let’s prioritize that.
Allison Tyler Jones: And then also something that would allow the clients to feel confident about selecting the clothing for their session and a printed piece that would allow them to share with their spouse and be able to put together the game plan for their session. So I needed it to be part brochure, part getting ready guide, part last minute checklist and part consultation form, because my consultation form was internal. I was keeping that form, but I wanted this printed piece to go with my clients, and I wanted it to be sexy and good-looking and that they felt completely and totally cared for.
Allison Tyler Jones: So I wanted all of this in a single booklet that the client would take with them at the end of their consultation. Now, I’ve been using this, I created it about five years ago. It’s called the ATJ Game Plan booklet, and I started off by using it in my studio and I’ve been revising it for the last five years, and now for the first time ever, I’m offering it to The ReWork community to use in your portrait studio.
Allison Tyler Jones: So what’s included in that? In this course, it’s a little mini course, not a big long course. There’s a video lesson with me on how to use the game plan booklet in your consultation. You will also have a video recording of an actual client consultation with me and a client using the booklet in real time. And then you’ll have layered PSD files of the game plan booklet that we use in our studio every day, as well as a PDF version of the latest and greatest ATJ consultation form.
Allison Tyler Jones: So all of that is included for just a one-time payment of $2.95, just $2.95 to completely change the way that you interact with your clients, the information that they have, how taken care of they feel by making things transparent to them, putting together the game plan for the session so that everybody’s on the same page. We all know what we’re shooting for, we know how much it’s going to cost. They know what to wear. Everybody’s on the same page. This is the document. This is the booklet that has changed my business, and I want you to have it too if it works for you. So go to DoTheRework.com/gameplan. That’s DoTheRework.com/gameplan and download that booklet and start using it in your business this busy season. I know that the game plan booklet will be a game changer for your business.
Allison Tyler Jones: So a common mistake in our industry is having no philosophy. Look, I’m a photographer. I take photos. What kind of philosophy do I need to have? That’s where we get into things like I specialize in weddings, bar mitzvahs, family portraits, high school seniors, and commercial headshots, which equals I do everything for everyone, which translates to, you aren’t doing anything special for anyone. It’s just mediocre, average. You also hear very similar things. I capture memories. I capture moments. Again, there’s really nothing special there because that’s what everybody else is saying. There’s nothing setting you apart from anyone else. Even worse is the book now and save 20% off all prints or get a free set of holiday cards. We’re going back again to that talking to everyone. I’ve often asked my students in our membership group, if you couldn’t talk about pricing discounts or promotions, what would you talk about in your marketing?
Allison Tyler Jones: I talk about my philosophy either directly or indirectly, which by definition is highlighting my boundaries and protecting my space. So the application of that, I might say something like in a first phone call, “look, we’re not normal. We’re not the typical. We work differently than other photographers. We specialize in a finished product, which is wallet for your home or custom designed albums”. Now, by definition, that means we’re not selling digital files, we’re selling a finished product. “But wait”, you say “that’s scary”. The fear is that it’s going to repel some people and turn them off, and it will and it does. But what I found is that those leads that come through and are thinking that they’re going to get digital files like they have from every other photographer, they don’t go away mad. After we’ve spoken and I share with them our philosophy, why we do what we do and how we do it. They go away educated and they understand where to get what I do and when they are ready for it, they know where to come.
Allison Tyler Jones: And so I get texts like, “thank you so much for taking the time with me. What you do is really special. It’s amazing. My family’s going to be all together next summer. I want to schedule something then”, or “I have a spot in my living room that I’ve always wanted to put something on. When my oldest comes home from college, we’re going to book you then. I’ll go ahead and just use the local neighborhood girl and I’ll get my holiday cards from her.” That’s a success in my book. I don’t see that as a failure because that was never going to, if they were coming in thinking that they were going to get digital files or just holiday cards, that was never going to be a fit anyway.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, it’s better to have them understand, know what I do, be very clear on that, know what my philosophy is, and then when they’re ready for that and that aligns with what they want to do, then we’re going to be a perfect match. A very common mistake is providing such a low barrier for entry, like a discounted or a no session fee, no talking about money. Maybe you email a price list over or you get too much talking about all the creative and what to wear, and then expect that somehow magically the client is going to intuit or understand how you work and then want to pay you for something that you never explained to them in the first place. Instead, what happens if you don’t talk about this stuff and you don’t let them know what your philosophy is, they feel blindsided. Like you tricked them, like you’re holding images of their family hostage, and it just all burns down from there.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, the thing that you’re actually afraid of, which is that they’re going to go away and talk bad about you, actually happens more in that instance when you haven’t told them your philosophy than when you do. If you found out about a new restaurant, for example, and they had some rules or a process or a way of delivering the experience that was different. So one example that Daniel Priestley used in the book was like, they have rules about how to dress or whether kids are allowed or not, or their pricing or reservations. So they have boundaries and rules in place to give you a certain experience. Okay? So think about that. The boundaries and rules are in place not because they don’t want to play by your rules, but because they want to give you a certain experience and they aren’t willing to compromise that experience.
Allison Tyler Jones: So if you think about it from that angle, does that change your mind? That what we’re doing, what we’re really protecting, it’s not that we think we’re so cool because we’re little precious artists and we’re so precious about our work. No, we’re protecting the client’s space. We know that I can’t do back to back sessions every hour on the hour, all day, every day and have the energy and the ability to check in and be focused on your kids and your dogs and whoever you’re bringing through that door with you if I’m exhausted, if I’ve just let everybody in. The big question he asks after talking about this restaurant example is, did the restaurant put these rules into place after they became oversubscribed or did putting these rules in place cause them to be oversubscribed? Okay, so chicken/egg, right? Do we put the rules into place afterwards become so in demand that then we got to lay down some rules or did putting the rules in place actually cause the oversubscribed? And Daniel Priestley believes you will never become oversubscribed if you’re not willing to name your terms.
Allison Tyler Jones: And I absolutely agree. I once had a student say to me, “well, it’s easy for you to make rules. You were obviously in such demand that you had to make rules to control who had access to you.” That is actually not true. What I realized is that I had cast my net so wide and I was willing to let everybody have access to me no matter how little or much they wanted to spend. And I realized that I was ignoring really clients that were willing to invest big. Like say for example, somebody that had done a big family gallery. They were super nice, just the greatest clients, the ideal. They had paid for this big family gallery, and we had that in production. And then I had somebody that had booked in a session and all they wanted were 25 holiday cards. But because I was taking everyone, of course I would do that.
Allison Tyler Jones: I would do an entire session just for 25 holiday cards, of course. Because I say yes to everyone, and I wanted everyone and everybody and everything to happen through my studio. Well, what I realized is that when I was on the 12th revision for that holiday card, I was ignoring, I had not protected the space for that client who had done the gallery, and they were so kind and so nice and so easy, and so aligned with my brand that it was easy to ignore them because they weren’t on the phone demanding the 12th revision of some wall portrait. They just trusted that I was going to do what I was doing. So because I didn’t have any rules in place, any rules of engagement to protect not only my space, but my best client’s space, I was causing delays in production on a big job, in favor of a small job with a client that was going to beat me up on price and was never going to ever translate into that kind of client.
Allison Tyler Jones: I know that you’ve had these same experiences and we wondered, “why am I doing this?” But it’s because we don’t have a philosophy. We haven’t set up the barriers. We haven’t set up the rules to protect our best client’s space. From the time I started until I can date it until about 2010, I was a do everything for everyone kind of photographer until I got sick, literally sick and tired of trying to appeal to everyone. During this illness, I told myself that if I got better, if I survived it, I would run the business the way that I really wanted to by making it special for a few people rather than trying to do everything for everyone. Fortunately, I did get better. I came back and I quit shooting weddings. I quit shooting events. I stopped shooting on location. I did what I always wanted, which was specializing in studio work, and I set up some rules and a philosophy. That I was going to be doing finished product, and it was going to be wall art or albums, and then anything other than that was going to be an add-on to those things.
Allison Tyler Jones: So, I wasn’t going to just shoot for holiday cards. Those things would be an add-on to the main core offering, which was wall art or custom designed albums. And guess what? Some people did leave me and not come back, but most, my very best clients, so interesting, were so glad to have more of me and have their experience become more special every year and less hurried, and I started to attract more and more people like them because I had carved out that space and protected it. Let’s use another example. Think about hiring a financial advisor. Do you want someone who’s running a discount special and obviously desperate for work? Or do you want someone who insists on a consultation to determine your specific needs? And only then will they let you know if you are a fit to work with them? It’s a completely different experience.
Allison Tyler Jones: People like to know that you have certain standards. So an example, if you’re a multimillionaire, you might want to know that this advisor only accepts people with a certain net worth, or maybe they specialize in clients with real estate holdings like you have. If it’s someone who’s marketing is casting a net to everyone, it’s actually not even going to register for the high net worth client or the person that wants somebody that specializes in real estate because they’re looking for someone who speaks their language, who understands what they need and wants to deliver it to people like them. Or maybe you’re just starting out investing and you want someone who works with new investors and will walk you through the process by holding your hand, and they don’t work with high-flyers. They work with people who are trying to build their nest egg and are willing to educate those who don’t know the ropes.
Allison Tyler Jones: So that’s another interesting take on it. So it’s just speaking a specific language for a small group of people that value what you do. So specificity is the key. It’s not exclusionary. This is not the bratty sales girl on Rodeo Drive in Pretty Women like, “oh no, we don’t have that in your size.” It’s just being specific and clear about who you can best help, who can get the best results from you and how you do business. So for me, that’s what that sounds like. The application of that in our business is when somebody wants it big, retouched to perfection, and printed to perfection and framed to perfection and delivered and installed on their wall in a place, in an area of their home that we have pre-designed for, then they need us. If they only want some Facebook photos or digital files for their holiday cards, then our pricing and process makes us overkill for that kind of application.
Allison Tyler Jones: Refining that philosophy, being very specific, not speaking to everyone, absolutely key to success. So let’s recap again these three concepts. Defining your capacity, how much work you can realistically take on and gearing your marketing and branding efforts to that reality versus we’ll take anyone anytime. Not trying to be everything for everyone. We’re casting a narrower net for specific people. We’re speaking to a specific person, we’re not speaking to everyone. And then creating our philosophy about how we do business and why, what our rules of engagement are, why we do it the way that we do it, to protect the space for our very best clients.
Allison Tyler Jones: There are so many other great concepts in this book, but these are three that really spoke to me and I hope will help you as you develop your own marketing, your own branding, your own messaging for your business. I’d love to know if you’ve read this book or if you get it and do read it, what you got out of the book. Send me a DM, an email. I’d love to hear what you’re getting out of it. These are the concepts that resonated with me and that have really impacted our business. Thanks for listening. See you next time.
Recorded: You can find more great resources from Allison@dotherework.com and on Instagram @DoTheReWork.