Sarah Petty: Adam Redding spent 12 years as a seasonal photographer before taking the leap to open a storefront studio at the Jersey Shore in 2021. With no kiddos and a growing business, Adam was ready for a more profitable photography business and felt that following the boutique model was the right path to the life he wanted. After putting the systems in place, Adam scored orders of $2,267 and $1,729, and has a unique perspective as a male photographer operating as a boutique photographer that I’m really excited for him to share.
Sarah Petty: Adam, share a little bit of your background.
Adam Redding: I graduated from school and I’ve been very scientifically trained. I spent a lot of time in academia, got a master’s degree in chemistry, and photography ended up being a side project which eventually became part-time.
I was working my main job during the week, and then on the weekend was freelancing and doing a few things with photography. It started to build a over the years. I learned that I love sports and it just got to the point where I needed to start charging. As I was learning photography, I came across this little orange book that had just been released. I read through the book and decided I would take some of those things and put it together. I’ve pretty much always offered prints, but it was in addition to getting the digitals. Through the years, it became a bit of a hassle. It was so much easier to just hand off digitals.
During COVID, I was able to do some outside photography with some clients. Post-COVID, I decided to get serious about it and take the leap. After everybody was released from their homes, it seemed like they wanted photos, and I started making a lot of money in the photography part of it. It got to the point where it was almost ready to replace what I was making at my job.
I was renting from a local dance studio on times when they weren’t using it. And then, I started realizing that I was paying them as much for four days a month that I could have had my own studio for 30 days a month.
I was also working a couple other jobs part-time during the week, so it wasn’t like that was my only focus. When I transitioned into having the studio, I decided to get rid of the extra job so that I could focus on the business and the whole if you build it, they will come things but that didn’t happen. I struggled for a couple years. I now had the overhead of the studio. It’s a nice place to sit and edit and work. But, unless there’s clients walking through the door that are going to pay you something, it doesn’t keep the lights on, or it doesn’t keep the gas flowing to the heater.
I decided that I needed to start focusing on something else from what I was photographing. I needed to start getting families in or something. My mind had been opened to looking for other ways to bring in new clients. I hadn’t thought about raising my prices, because not a lot of people were purchasing prints and things. I saw one of your booking challenges and paid attention to every word. I decided that I needed to invest in myself and bought Boutique Breakthrough.
Sarah Petty: When you have a studio, every month that you’re not making way more than that rent it’s hard. The studio itself doesn’t bring you clients and make you money. The education on how to get clients to make money does, and then it pays the studio for the experience. You got into Boutique Breakthrough and what obstacles did you have to overcome to get it done?
Adam Redding: I love the way that the whole program is set up, because you have to focus on one thing at a time. I was putting new systems in place, and working through it all with the coaches online. Having the community and the Facebook group helped inspire me to keep going. We were all learning at the same pace and going through the steps together.
Sarah Petty: Nobody’s really ahead of anybody, because everybody has their strengths and weaknesses throughout the whole program. Because there are more women in the program, how did it resonate for you being a guy?
Adam Redding: I was able to modify the prompts and things to what fit my lifestyle so I could start conversations.
Sarah Petty: When you went through the program, you got your first Julie, $1,000 or more client order, how did that feel?
Adam Redding: That was a process. It’s a little bit scary, putting all the steps into place. The person wanted pictures of her pup. The pup was a little shy, and she didn’t know how it was going to handle the situation so I had her come in for the consultation and she hid under mom’s legs the whole time. As we chatted and we talked, eventually, the pup came over and was taking treats out of my hand. So, we made friends.
Sarah Petty: So, you did the session and did the presentation. What did that feel like?
Adam Redding: We decided to do the session at her house. While I was there, I took pictures of her walls. She came in for the in-person sales consultation and she’s crying, watching them flip through the TV, one after another. At the end, she sees the four pictures of her house with different mock-ups of and wanted them. It was a $1,700 order.
Sarah Petty: Wow. Doesn’t that feel so good? So what opened up in your mind after you got that first order?
Adam Redding: It seemed very easy. I was able to narrow it down to the 30 best images for her presentation. When she saw them, she loved every single one. The amount of time invested in it was a lot less than sitting for hours, and hours editing 100 images just to hand off and not see the reaction.
Sarah Petty: I love that. Thank you for sharing your story.
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