The ReWork with Allison Tyler Jones

Welcome friends to Season 3 of The ReWork Podcast! It’s that time of year again, time to dig back into your business and make this the best holiday season yet. And today’s topic is meant to help you do exactly that. It also happens to be one of my favorite topics - Client Consultations.  First of all, are you providing clients with a consultation?  If you are, how are they working?  What’s not wor...

For the last episode of Season 2, we have none other than our own Kaitlyn Beagley, Client Coordinator extraordinaire at Allison Tyler Jones Photography. Since her start with ATJ in 2021, Kaitlyn has taken the client experience to a new level and continues to amaze me with her creative ideas that make every client feel special and confident. In our conversation today, we talk about a wide range and...

In our third, and final, episode of our Dad Series: What Real Men Think of Family Portraits, we are joined by another family man sharing his love for the artwork that adorns the walls not only in his home, but in his office as well (in a BIG way). As you’ll hear in our conversation, Bob Cunningham is first and foremost a family man, but he is also the CEO of a commercial truck dealership that serv...

In my opinion, the greatest compliment a man can receive is that he is a family man. And that is certainly true of today’s guest, Tommy Stapley, who is our guest for Part 2 of our Dad Series: What Real Men Think of Family Portraits. Tommy Stapley is a real estate developer by trade, but a dad and family man at heart. This has made him an absolute lover of family portraits. Not only that, but he ha...

“How do we get the dads on board?” “How do you handle the grumpy husbands?” “What if Dad decides to tank the sale?” Historically, dads aren’t as excited about family portraits as moms are. Perhaps it’s because they weren’t the ones to plan the session and are likely the ones that will be most concerned about the bill.  Maybe it’s because their wife has been ordering $3M worth of clothing over the...

This episode features the most special guest we’ve ever had on the show, my husband, Ivan Jones. Beyond being the kindest man you’ll ever meet, he is also extremely smart and he brings so much to our business that I never would have been able to achieve on my own.  Ten years ago, Ivan left his career in manufacturing and came into our portrait studio full time. Over the last decade, we’ve learned...

If you’ve ever found yourself in a group of photographers talking shop, it won’t take long for you to hear the common “That might work for you, but it won’t work in my town.” Sometimes we find ourselves in the company of those kinds of people and, honestly, sometimes we are those people; believing that success can happen for everyone but us. Today’s guest proves that success is within reach. Even...

We’ve heard that seeing is believing. But in the case of today’s guest, Allison Gallagher, believing is seeing.  For years, Allison ran, what she thought was, a sustainable business. But as she continued to learn and level up after becoming a Mindshift member she says, “I was doing but not believing. My mindset didn’t keep up with the growth.” Allison sits in the hot seat today and keeps it real w...

It is officially the time of year where we’re thinking about spring cleaning! And that doesn’t just mean for your home. The same goes for your business and maybe you’ve been thinking about making some changes. There’s no one better to talk about this than Tom Muñoz. Tom has been a distinguished wedding photographer since the age of 16 and is a part of a long line of incredible photographers. Tom b...

The definition of a sustainable business might be: we’re making money our bills are paid we’re feeling fulfilled.  But the true test of sustainability is challenging times. It might be global (pandemic anyone?); it might be national (economic uncertainty); or it might be personal adversity in our lives. Today’s guest, Tania Gaylor, is no stranger to adversity of many kinds in the last few years, b...

You’ve heard the old saying that nice guys (or girls) finish last. Today’s guest is proof-positive that that is a myth. I’ve noticed that portrait photographers, in particular, are creative individuals and most are overwhelmingly kind and sensitive.  Trying to always be “nice” can set us up to be taken advantage of when trying to run a business. Difficult experiences then leave us feeling frustrat...

Debbie McFarland wears many hats. She’s a portrait photographer, she runs amazing Teen Empowerment Workshops, and is the founder of Sparks of Kindness, an online community whose goal is to make the world a kinder place. Oh, and she has also raised six kids (nbd)!  As a fellow artist, you can probably relate to having this many irons in the creative fire. Most photographers I meet have multiple pro...

At some point, many wedding photographers feel the itch to transition from events to shooting portraits instead. Maybe they want their weekends back. Maybe they are burnt out on the run and gun of the wedding business; but when you’ve built your entire brand around wedding photography, how do you make the switch? Jeannine Pohl did it and she experienced more success than she imagined. Jeannine is...

When it comes to the software we use to manage our business, some make our lives easier and some don’t. And whether you are a solopreneur or manage a team, new to the business or a veteran, software can make or break the systems you use to be successful. So what software can not only streamline the business but can also help us sell? We’ve got two portrait photographers on the podcast today to tal...

Many photographers love the IDEA of albums, but when it comes to actually selling them they find themselves lost in a sea of confusion. Confusion about: -What album sizes to offer? -What types of cover material to use (leather or photo cover)? -What type of pages or paper? And we all know that when there are too many decisions to make, we often make no decision at all.  And this is all BEFORE we e...

Marketing is, hands down, one of the most requested discussion topics here on The ReWork. Why? Because marketing is hard! And it takes a lot of time, energy, and you never really know what is going to work. Especially in uncertain economic times, it can be difficult to know where to spend your marketing time and money. That’s why Drake Busath is joining the podcast today. The gold standard of port...

Many things are challenging during uncertain times. Money and the stress of owning a business is usually the most talked-about. But for creatives in the photography industry, scary times can also make finding inspiration difficult. When that happens, it impacts our decision-making and we all know that those decisions might hurt our bottom line as well as our passion for what we do. When it comes t...

Welcome back to Season 2 of The ReWork Podcast! We’re kicking off the 2023 season with a ReWork favorite guest, Kathryn Langsford of Photos by Kathryn, and we’re talking all about how to navigate the slow seasons in our business.  Following the hectic holiday season, January and February feel much slower. In the beginning of January, this feels great, but by the time we hit late January or early F...

In our last episode of 2022, the tables are being turned with Jessica Mackey interviewing me about our year-end review at our portrait studio.  2022 has been both an extremely busy and exhausting year but we’ve learned so much that we want to share with you all the details, both good and bad and BIG changes on the ATJ horizon that we are looking forward to in 2023. Setting aside time to reflect is...

Today, we’re continuing our hypothetical conversation of “If I Was Starting Out Now” but this time we are having the convo with Kimberly Wylie, from Dallas, Texas. Kimberly is a phenomenal portrait photographer that had to close her studio in 2020 due to health problems that are still impacting her life. In this episode, we talk about what she would do if she had to start over again in the portrai...

After 17 years in business, I still refer to the notes I took from the presentations I’ve attended by Tim Walden and his wife, Beverly. Tim is the co-owner of Walden Photography in Lexington, Kentucky, and one of the most amazing business minds in this industry. He does his job with such class and kindness and invests his time not only with clients but in helping other photographers strengthen the...

The longer you’re in a space, it becomes easier to look back and reflect on decisions. As a photographer in the business for 17 years, I’ve learned so much through trial and error. But if I were starting out now, knowing everything I currently know, what would I do differently?  This is the question I asked today’s amazing guest, Mary Fisk-Taylor, who has been a photographer in the industry for 28...

Over the last few years, there has been an ever-growing trend for personal branding portraits and headshots. These can be an awesome opportunity, but it’s not uncommon to see photographers working way too hard and for way too many hours and not getting the financial benefits of that work. With this expanding segment of our industry, I wanted to bring in an expert who has successfully threaded the...

Auburn Jones is head of client experience at DeCesare Design Group, a high-end, turnkey design firm that spends months and years on each individual project. Rather than approaching those relationships from a place of business, they instead make it a point to understand, celebrate, and commemorate the details of each family.  Gift giving is an extremely rewarding practice to incorporate into your b...

Today’s episode is a joint pep talk for photographers with my friend, Jeff Dachowski, a portrait photographer from New Hampshire. In addition to creating beautiful portraits, he is also the current President of Professional Photographers of America. Running a portrait business isn’t easy and, as creatives, you can let your fears erode your confidence until it seems that success is in the cards for...