From Firefighter to Online Photo School-Kyle Shultz of Shultz Photography School
Jumping into a side business full time is a scary thing to do, because you don’t really know how things will take off as you envision.
But the point is taking that leap, and inserting yourself into an uncomfortable environment where I believe real forward change and financial gains can come to life.
Kyle Shultz made that leap just a few years ago, and said goodbye to a full time career to pursue a niche idea online in the photography space that he was always passionate about.
I believe so many of us have so much more to offer and teach others but never make a distinct decision to become that educator or thought leader in our respective niche.
Unless of course we simply choose to stop thinking and start doing.
And while the opportunities are endless in today’s online landscape, it’s a struggle to find some real traction, so putting thought to action is easier said than done.
Kyle Shultz isn’t the typical dreamer, and his story is an awesome example of executing on his vision and getting it done.
I had the pleasure of working with Kyle as he was growing his most valuable asset, his email list.
We had connected at a time when he was looking to automate various parts of his business, and you will see the drastic growth he realized after implementing a few core strategies he learned along the way.
We recently caught back up to talk about his continued journey in building his online brand.
Give us a brief history of SPS and how far you have come from inception of idea to current state of your business.
I generally adhere to the well known advice that my single greatest asset (as an online business) is my email list. It’s been the sole metric I pay attention to from an audience standpoint.
Obviously I’m aware of how many members I have to various paid courses. But I can tell you how many new members I’ll have at any given time…IF you tell me how many new email leads I have.
So it all points back to getting new email subscribers. The strategy I’ve found that works best is to run ads towards free mini courses.
We try and give folks tremendous value for free, and keep it that way for a good while. By the time we make an ask/offer, many have come to know, like, and trust us.
Why/when did you decide to become an entrepreneur and build toward a revenue stream outside the 9-5?
I owned a full time photography business from 2007-2012. We were fortunate and enjoyed a great client base, but in 2012 I became a career firefighter. Long story (smile).
Rewind a bit: in 2009 I noticed a handful of parents asking me the same question: “Hey Shultzy, I bought this new fancy camera to take better pics of Junior, but I have no idea how to use it. Got any tips?”
I immediately had the idea of an online photography course geared specifically towards parents. I decided to offer the class in person first…just wanted to shorten the feedback loop and form an effective “curriculum.”
Each class was a month long. We met on Monday nights and then I’d give them short lessons via email on the days in between. I rinsed and repeated a few times. But in the midst of running an in demand studio, I never got it online.
Back to firefighting. Firefighting was life changing in more ways than I can list. One of which allowed me to say no to wedding photography and a large portion of portrait commissions. I had a sliver of margin.
Shultz Photo School was still a dream. Perhaps more then than ever before.
At the end of 2012 I took the content from Shultz Photo School and put it online. It was bootstrapped and duct taped. I learned enough to get the whole thing online in a WordPress site and put a buy button up.
I put a link up to purchase on my Facebook feed (just my personal feed), and 54 people bought it. As they say, the rest is history.
In early 2016 I resigned my position as firefighter to focus on Shultz Photo School full time.
We’ve had the privilege of helping 70,000 parents learn to take better pics of their kids, mostly through our completely free courses.
We have 3 paid courses currently with plans to add a couple new courses per year. Our team consists of me and 3 others working remotely across the States.
What drives you everyday?
Faith and family.
I want to be faithful to my calling and the value I can bring to those around me. It’s a stewardship deal. If God has allowed me opportunities, I want to be faithful and manage them the best I can.
As for family, Julie and I share a growing love after 12 years of marriage and 3 wonderful kids (9,6, and 4).
Obviously providing them opportunities for a bright present, and future, keeps my foot on the pedal.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from pursuing a business online?
Wow. Just one??
There’s one secret ingredient every business needs to succeed: an audience.
Can you speak to what you have seen as the most valuable asset to building an audience?
Facebook Ads took my subscriber base from 3,500 people to 50,000 in a year.
Not just any ads, of course. In fact, you can waste every dollar you spend on Facebook ads really quickly if you take the wrong approach.
My approach has been to use Facebook Ads to drive traffic to free courses. From their they get plugged into our lead nurturing funnel.
Best advice for others that are on the fence about starting their online business/brand?
You have to build version 1.0 before you build version 2.0. And it’ll be a different 2.0 than you thought it’d be. Ship it.
You won’t find your lane to run in by thinking about it. You have to get out there.
What is next for the SPS?
We have a pretty specific roadmap for new courses to add over the next year.
Right now I’m most excited about our new Grads program, which is my first month-to-month offering, but it’s only for those who have taken our Photo Fix course, which is our “101” type course.
I’m amazed at the actual community that has formed around these courses (private Facebook Groups being our main meeting place…but we’re starting to see our first live-in-person SPS meet-ups happening around the nation).
From a revenue standpoint, my goal is to 3x yearly revenues in 2016 and again in 2017. We’re on track!
Kyle’s journey is a perfect example of capitalizing on a specific niche and becoming a thought leader and resource through simple education and showing others what you know.
He didn’t have a business right away, he built his value over time until he found a way to tackle a specific pain point or struggle others were having.
I agree that a business is nothing more than a solution to a problem in many cases.
I won’t try to summarize my favorite takeaway from this chat, I’ll just leave the direct words from Kyle himself to re-iterate.
This is so true, because we all need to start somewhere.
“You have to build version 1.0 before you build version 2.0. And it’ll be a different 2.0 than you thought it’d be. Ship it. “