Episode 1

4 Tips on Creating a Profitable and Sustainable Photography Business You Love

Have you been wanting to turn your passion for photography into high growing sales? Do you want to learn how to monetize your artistic talent and build your own business? Are you ready to find out how you can sell your photographs at the right price that can turn your one-time clients into lifetime partners?

Photographs have the power to lock in time and reminisce the memories that were once made, but oftentimes, forgotten by the mind. There are so many things that go on into taking a picture, but what happens if you got the talent to capture the art that can last a lifetime and touch lives? Taking photographs can become your niche and help you start your very own business.

If you are ready to take the risk, earn more, and touch lives through photographs, then sit back and get ready to be blown out. If the golden hour is called the “magic hour”, then you’ll become the golden photographer that will wow your clients away after this amazing treat!

Tavis and Amy Guild are business designers and portrait artists based in Yakima, WA. A fun and vibrant style has given these two the opportunity to photograph over a thousand weddings and sessions in the past ten years all over the world. Passionate about people and wall portraits, helping photography business owners has been a natural extension of their work. They have been coaching entrepreneurs and teaching photography courses since 2011.

In this episode, Tavis and Amy talk about how you can monetize your photography passion through the help of their newly-published podcast and what are the amazing things you can expect from the many more episodes to come. As a starting point, they also share the pillars of photography that can help you get better sales and maximize your business.

What you will learn from this episode:

  • Discover how you can turn your passion for photography into a business that can get you sales while doing what you love
  • Get to know more about how Tavis and Amy came to be professional photographers and what can you learn from their life
  • Understand what are the pillars of photography that can promise you better sales, more clients at a lesser time

“And as photographers, I feel like it's our duty to be legacy-minded and to give people tangible products.”

-Tavis and Amy Guild

Topics Covered:

00:22 - Monetizing Your Photography Passion: Amy shares what the purpose of their podcast is

02:34 - Finding Composition in the Chaos: Amy shares how they became professional photographers

04:43 - Widening the Aperture: What are the things that Amy and Tavis did in their studio that opened them to better business

06:00 - Learning While We're Going: Amy share what their business model was and the lessons they learned from it

07:00 - Money Blocks: Tavis explains the important difference between meeting where your clients are at from meeting where you’re at financially

11:15 - Dream a Little and Go Big: Amy shares the reality of being a photographer and how larger sales are actually possible

12:39 - Taking Shots, Talking Sales: Tavis talks about the first pillar, in-person sales, and everything you need to know about it

15:15 - Does Size Really Matter?: Tavis shares the second pillar, the magic of removing everything small, and how it got them more sales

18:29 - Keeping it Authentic and Passionate: Tavis talks about how to build value into your artistry by doing the third pillar

19:48 - Expanding the Depth of Field: Tavis explains about why ditching the price sheet can truly change the dynamics and elevate your client’s experience

20:28 - Explaining Our World: What happens when you put up a price sheet and what happens if you don’t?

24:57 - Systems Like a Tripod: Tavis explains the importance of establishing the last pillar, a good system, in place before all the other possibilites

29:07 - Just a Quick Recap: Tavis does a quick recap of the pillars and shares exciting things to look forward to in the next episodes



Key Takeaways:

“Let's just put on the give ourselves a student's heart as we kind of walk through these things.” -Tavis and Amy Guild

“I think before you can truly make a business plan and know where your business is headed, and where you want to go, you have to dream a little bit about what is even possible.” -Tavis and Amy Guild

“At the end of the day,it's not as much about us as it is about our clients, how can we serve them well where they're at.” -Tavis and Amy Guild

“Sometimes clients don't even realize how important those items on the wall really are until they have them.” -Tavis and Amy Guild

“By removing all the things I wasn't passionate about, it actually stripped what we offer to clients back to truly just a canvas and an album-- it was very simple.” -Tavis and Amy Guild

“The rest of the conversation you're having with your client is building value into the artistry, which doesn't have a logical anchor point to anyone price. It's whatever price we value our art at. And so taking the focus off of the product really helped me out.” -Tavis and Amy Guild


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About the Podcast

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Selling Photography
Learn how to create so much value in your portrait brand that clients can’t stop investing in you!

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About your host

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Tavis Guild