We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jordan Savage. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jordan below.
Jordan, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I have indeed been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work.
As a freelance photographer, I have the luxury of working on any and all projects that interest me. That has been a huge contributor to earning a full-time salary.
My primary source of income is real estate media production. Photos, videos, drone work, 3D tours – anything you can think of that would represent a house up for sale.
Real estate media production is a very consistent stream of work and that has helped a lot! I not only tackle residential listings, but commercial listings as well.
The full-time creative journey began in November 2021. I had already started my business after being let go from the KCPD in October of 2021, but I was holding on to a full-time office job as an file clerk for a law firm as long as possible. It was a very comfortable job. Great benefits. But it wasn’t challenging me at all. I walked in one day in April of 2022 and I just had had enough. I went to my boss’s office and told her that it would be my last day.
Now, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that someone do this, but for me, it was the right move. My business was picking up and I had a lot of momentum and I feared that if I didn’t act now, I would never go for it again.
I dipped in to my savings (and some credit) and purchased the gear I needed to do the job right and this was a very good motivator to keep my head in the game. I started my business in debt but I promised myself I’d have it all paid off in 3 months. It took me about 6 months, but I ended my first year in-business in the black. So I’ll take it! I basically broke even for the first 18 months, but I’ll take that over being in debt any day!!
While working on the real estate side to be more consistent, I was still doing studio photography, corporate photography and videography, and commercial real estate media production. I’d land about one of these gigs each month and that helped me out a lot. They’re much larger jobs and thus yield more, so it was always a huge relief when I was able to work with clients in those areas!
April came and went and I just kept to the grind. I went to Instagram and started contacting agents directly and offering them a free photo shoot on their next listing. The intention was to give agents a risk-free trial in hopes that if they liked my work and customer service, they’d become repeat clients. It actually worked! I’d say, even to this day, about 85% of the agents I’ve reached out have become regular clients.
I kept this up for a good while and in November of last year, I moved from Instagram to Zillow. I used the same approach, but this time, rather than a message to their inbox, I cold called them.
As you can imagine, it wasn’t the best approach. At first. No one likes being cold called, right? It took quite a few attempts to really develop a pitch that didn’t get me chewed out or hung up on, but the results started to be mostly positive rather than mostly negative. These clients even started to send me referrals from their teams!
This is the approach that I still use today and I will continue to do so until a new method yields better results.
During the early stages of client acquisition, I hadn’t quite figured out how to balance out maintaining the level outreach day-by-day while also tending to the clients that were hiring me. I would do some outreach, get hired to photograph listings, and then I’d get so busy with the photography, that my outreach started to taper off until it fizzled out entirely.
There were many, many instances where I was basically starting from square one. The work would stop coming in because I wasn’t continuing to contact new clients, so I had to start the client outreach all over again.
If I could do it all over again, I would have focused on learning how to balance acquisition and current clientele much, much sooner. So if anyone reading this is struggling with the same thing, I’d start there and make sure you can take care of your current clients while bringing new ones in.
For me, I was recommended to spend the first two hours of my day handling clerical work – including the client outreach. Then, the rest of the day was spent on-site at homes.
Even now, I still make time twice a week to reach out to new clients so that I don’t let the efforts fall off.
There have been countless learning curves I’ve had to overcome, but it all pays off. When you push your limits, you really see how much you can take on and how effectively (or ineffectively) you handle it. It’s all trial and error until one method yields solid results and from there, it’s all about fine-tuning it so that it can be maintained whether it’s the busy season or slow season.
Since November of 2023, I’ve scaled my business and have hired two employees. It’s been incredible getting to see my client base grow, experience the hiring process from the role of the person hiring, and train photographers how to do what I do. It’s been a lot of fun, honestly! I feel very fortunate to have had these opportunities and to have met all of the people I have worked with over the last 3 years.
Their trust in my customer service and the products we produce are the reason it’s all been possible to scale and I will never take that for granted!
I work with some of the best people in the world and I look forward to each new day on the job!!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve always wanted to do art for a living, but really struggled to find an outlet that would actually earn money.
In 2007, I was given a camera for my birthday and I fell in love with the craft! I wound up going to school for photography, but then gave up on it shortly after.
I will be the first to admit that I wasn’t disciplined enough to do what was needed to be successful in the industry.
I worked some odd jobs here and there until landing a job at the Crime Lab for the Kansas City Police Department in 2020.
Fast-forward to May of 2020, when George Floyd was killed. This was when things within the KCPD started getting rocky. There were a lot of measures taken to ensure the safety of the city’s civilians during all of the rioting and protests, and then the KCPD was hit with massive budget cuts.
This sent the KCPD into a frenzy, and a lot of people were separated from the Department for one reason or another, including myself. I was let go in October 2021.
It was at that moment, as I was walking to my car that I decided that I wouldn’t let someone else directly impact whether or not I was going to eat tomorrow. If I couldn’t put food on the table, it would be because I wasn’t working hard enough.
So I reached out to a few friends of mine that I had worked for off and on and got to work establishing my LLC and becoming a freelance photographer. I worked temp jobs for a few months as I networked with local creatives and was eventually hired by one of these employers.
When January 2022 came along, I promised myself that I would take any photography gig that came my way and eventually outgrew the need to hold a full-time job. In April of 2022, I became a full-time freelance photographer and I’ve never looked back!
I’m a freelancer, so I take on whatever work interests me and/or comes my way. I’ve done a lot of different things and I’m always able to take something away from each gig and apply it to something later on. It’s been a lot of fun!
I mostly handle residential and commercial real estate media production. I’m taking photos for their websites, videos for social media, and everything in between.
I’d have to say that I’m most proud of ending each year since I started the business in the black. Most businesses take several years to achieve this, but I’ve been very fortunate to have avoided that outcome. That’s not to say it won’t happen later on down the road, but it’s been something I’ve been able to stave off for now.
The main thing I want people to know isn’t really about me. But more about my journey.
If you want to work for yourself, even to try it out, I encourage anyone to do so! It takes a lot of courage to invest in yourself, but there is nothing more rewarding than making a living doing something you are truly passionate about.
Not everyone is meant to work for someone else. It’s hard working for someone else, and it’s hard working for yourself. So you just have to pick which is more in-tune with your beliefs, values, goals, etc.
One quote that really resonates with me is, “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
– Dhirubai Ambani
Every single time a client hires me, whether it’s studio work, real estate work, or beyond, they are investing in my dream and keeping it alive!
They are trusting my abilities to represent themselves/their brand and that is something I truly cherish above all else when it comes to what I do!!
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I think it’s very important to maintain relationships with the people you work with. After all, they’re paying your bills, so to speak.
While I reach out to new clients twice a week, I make sure to reach out to clients that I currently have once every couple of months to simply check in on them and wish them well.
I never reach out to them asking for work. I genuinely reach out and engage in small-talk. How’s the family? How was your vacation? How have you been? I’m a talker, so I learn a lot about my clients.
In short: don’t treat your clients as numbers. They’re people. I’ve become close friends with a few of my clients and it’s all because I treat them as people and show genuine interest in their hobbies, goals, and lives.
Brand loyalty can also come from doing what others don”t or won’t.
Go the extra mile for your clients. Most of the time it’s something small, but it goes a long way. I’ve taken on same-day bookings because a client had an unexpected listing come up or go-live date pushed up. Have I always been able to accommodate this? No. But clients remember when you helped them out in a pinch.
If you take care of your clients, they will take care of you.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Once I started photography, I always thought that I wanted to be the next studio photographer. But after discovering real estate photography and how consistent it can be, I decided to pivot to pursuing that avenue much more aggressively.
These days, when I do get the studio gigs or simply have a few hours over the weekend to go in and get creative with lighting and artistic ideas, I have a lot of fun with it. I get to create works of art and experiment on my own time with very little pressure, if any, and its where my creativity truly thrives.
The real estate side of things covers expenses and keeps me busy during the week so I can have fun creating art in my free time.
I’m sure I’d absolutely love it if I was in the studio or traveling around working with models all day every day, but that isn’t my path, at least for now, and I’m okay with that.
At any moment I can shift gears and pursue that type of photography, but I really enjoy where I’m at and being able to do the studio side of things for fun. Often times, there’s nothing on the line, so I just go in to the studio and create.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.savagephotodesign.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savag3ly
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SavagePhotoDesign
Image Credits
Models: Miranda K. (image 1), Allee S. (image 2), Lainey W. (image 3)