The ReWork with Allison Tyler Jones

As we wrap up this four-part series, we’ve learned about retraining clients and retraining ourselves, but now it’s time to put the pieces together and set ourselves up for success. So in the fourth and final part of the Training Your Clients series, Jessica Mackey joins again to discuss just that! To set yourself up for success, you have to go back to the beginning and ask yourself what you want t...

We’ve already worked on checking our messaging and taking a step back to retrain ourselves, so in today’s Part 3 of the Training Your Clients series, we’re discussing how to retrain your existing clients.  Jessica Mackey joins again to conduct a few role plays in this episode as she shares some of the experiences here at Allison Tyler Jones Photography. It is no secret that changes have been made...

In Part 2 of our Training Your Clients Series, Jessica Mackey joins me again to explore the next step in training our clients, which is a step backwards in order to move forward. Before we can train our clients, we must first retrain ourselves .  Retraining ourselves means getting CRYSTAL CLEAR on who we are and what we do. So clear, in fact, that answers to difficult questions roll off our tongue...

Are you constantly getting questions about services you don’t want to provide?  Are you working in a way that follows your clients’ rules and not your own?  Why is this happening?  More than likely, you are sending the wrong message to clients.  Crafting an unparalleled experience for your clients means educating them first.  Before you can spoil the heck out of them, they first need to know HOW I...

If you listened to last week’s episode you got all the info you needed to AVOID hating your clients.  This week, we are focusing on the POSITIVE.  How to ATTRACT the perfect clients for your business and then bring them into your world and solve their problems, love on them, and make them clients for life.  In this episode, Kathryn Langsford and I demonstrate how to attract the perfect client by c...

Wait, why would we ever hate our clients? They support us and pay money for our services, what more could we want?  You’d be surprised how easy it is to get into a negative relationship with a client and almost always, it’s not the client’s fault.  It sounds something like this:   “What does she (client) expect when she only paid $X?”    (you discounted when you shouldn’t have or your prices are t...

Running your own business is not for the faint of heart in the best of times. Add in a pandemic, inflation, wars and uncertainty and it’s a recipe for fear and anxiety. So, consider this episode as your own personal ATJ pep-talk all about pricing, even in uncertain times. Putting a price on your work is one of the most challenging parts of the portrait business but it can feel especially hard righ...

The common lament of portrait photographers everywhere, “I need more clients!” Ideally, yes, we want more clients. But what if you’ve increased your marketing efforts and it’s not working out how you’d hoped? Instead of attracting well-qualified clients who want what you do, you’re attracting: Price sensitive people looking for “minis” or a deal. Potential clients who just want digital files so th...

Finding confidence in yourself, your business, your plans, and your future can feel like an uphill battle. We look at other business owners and we wish we had their talent or the confidence they exude. What can we do as business owners to not only set ourselves up as the expert with our client, but increase confidence in ourselves? Today’s guest is no stranger to digging deep to find confidence, e...

After one year of podcasting and online educating, I have made a powerful discovery. Probably the biggest single stumbling block for most photographers is NOT what I thought it would be. It’s not: -Pricing too low (although, that IS a problem) -Confusing Branding (yep, that’s an issue as well) No, the single, biggest issue for most photographers is the naked fear of expressing their opinions to cl...

More and more, social media is THE tool to connect with potential clients, to showcase your work and tell the story of how you do what you do. Being intentional with your social media is more important than ever.  That’s why we have our resident social media mastermind on the podcast today. My nephew, 17-year-old Ross Tyler DeCesare has been managing the social media for DeCesare Design Group for...

Let’s talk husbands.  Not all husbands. Just the complainers. The whiners. The picture haters. The bribers. The threateners. The time checkers. The killers of finalized orders and those “too busy” to attend a consultation or sales appointment, but not too busy to scuttle the actual sale. Actually…that might just cover 87% of husbands. If you are a family photographer, you know EXACTLY what I’m tal...

It’s summertime (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway!) and maybe you are getting ready to take a well-deserved break from your usual routine. Once the temps start climbing, I’m ready to play all day and avoid work at all costs; especially when the studio has been really busy and I’ve been shooting a lot.  I need a break from my routine.  A break to try something new. To DO something new. To SEE som...

Do you dread difficult client conversations?  Does potential client conflict have you questioning entrepreneurship? Today we’re discussing ways to deal with difficult people.  Or is it just difficult situations we find ourselves in with great people? Former client-coordinator and ReWork Director of Development, Jessica Mackey, shares four life-saving hacks for dealing with less-than-ideal situatio...

Picture this: You meet a potential client, they love you, you love them; the consultation is a dream, the portrait session, even better! And the images? #dead They cry, they buy and everyone’s happy. And then…..you never hear from them again. Sound at all familiar?  Is there something missing in the process? Don’t they know we want them to come back? If you have clients who’ve been MIA for awhile,...

The idea of “Quality Over Quantity” is gaining steam in today’s culture of Aspiring Minimalists.  Think Capsule Wardrobe : less pieces of clothing that are higher quality (and more expensive). Every piece fits you perfectly and works together with all the others to make multiple great outfits (a system) vs. a closet full of TJ Maxx pieces purchased because they were “on sale.” You end up with “a l...

Taking client phone calls can feel stressful. You want to make a good impression, while also gathering information and determining if you will be a good fit for their project.  When you have more experience with client conversations, it’s easy to forget just how hard you worked to get comfortable taking calls and walking clients through your process.  That’s why we knew now would be the perfect ti...

As we emerge out of a global pandemic, we’re aware, more than ever, of the pain in the world. Our clients are coming to us mentally fragile and in need of extra care and healing. If you are thinking, “but I am just a portrait photographer, what can I do?” then this episode is for you. As one of the wisest people I know, Houston photographer Cindy Crofford, was taught at a young age the importance...

As business owners, it can be tempting to come into an industry and simply do what everyone else is doing. We often look for plug and play “best practices” for our businesses based on industry standards.  But what if industry standards don’t match the standards we have for ourselves? When Dr. Stuart Frost came into the field of orthodontics, the typical business model was to work in volume. The go...

If there’s anything we’ve learned coming out of the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is the importance of our mental health. In fact I’d submit that, as entrepreneurs, our energy and mental health are THE primary assets in our businesses. After the last two years, we may be tired of being cooped up, but it is so important to remember the lessons we’ve learned by slowing down, especially now tha...

As kids, we’ve all been asked the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The answer to this question might change as we grow older, but in many ways the ideas we have early in life have an impact on our decisions as adults–just not in the ways that we might originally think. In the experience of today’s podcast guest, that rings especially true. Traci Beagley knew early on that she w...

What do the businesses of aesthetics and portrait photography have in common?  You might be surprised.  In fact, many of the most valuable business insights I have gained through the years, have come from outside the portrait industry and that's exactly why I think you are going to love today’s guest.  Rechelle Trejo is the owner of Auri Aesthetics in Gilbert, Arizona. Rechelle is a registered...

Your mindset about money affects more than just your business. It affects your confidence, your feelings of worth and the value that you place on your time and work. Today we’re talking about all things money with return guest and friend, Kimberly Wylie. Kimberly is an absolute inspiration in this field and even though she started out in the world of finance and is a pro at Excel spreadsheets, tha...

Today’s episode finishes up our Sales Sabotage Series with an emphasis on intentionally creating products that serve your clients and business instead of sabotaging your sales.  So, if the goal is to serve, not sabotage, where do we go wrong? Sometimes the products we offer to our clients are unintentionally sabotaging our brand and our bottom line. Maybe we selected our products based on a specia...

In the second episode in our Sale Sabotage Series we are taking a hard look at your Sale Process.  “What process?” you might ask. You may not know it, but you HAVE a sales process, it might not be leading you to the results you want for your clients or your business, but you do have one. The big question is, is your process working for you? If the answer is, “NO,” you’re in the right place!  In to...