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Hey guys, real quick before we dive in today, if you are feeling nervous this year and wondering if the upcoming busy season is actually going to be profitable for you, I want you to come to my free live workshop this May. It's called Economy Proof your busy season. And I am going to walk you through three specific ways to grow your photography income without raising your prices. We've got three sessions to choose from, including time zone options that are Australia and Europe friendly friendly. So hopefully there's something that you can come to live. Head to thiscan'tbethard.com economy to grab your spot. Registration only takes about 30 seconds and of course, the webinar is completely free. All right, now let's get into today's episode. You know what happens when you teach something for six years? You start to see it everywhere. When I first developed the Donkey, Workhorse and Unicorn framework, the core idea was just that every photography business needs to be built around one of those three models. Not a little bit of each, but one. So you determine which model fits your goals, your needs, your market, and then you build everything around that to keep it cohesive, to make it make sense for your clients. And that's still true. I stand by that as the easiest, most straightforward way to build a solid business. However, over the past six years of teaching this, I have heard hundreds, if not thousands of photographers stories the ways that they are running their business. And I have learned more about some of the nuances. Right. And especially as the photography market has gotten more competitive over the past few years, I have started to notice something interesting, which is that there are photographers out there intentionally combining these models in really creative ways. So it's not that they're abandoning the framework, it's just that they're using it strategically across different parts of their business. And it's really sophisticated and it's really interesting. So the two photographers that I am bringing onto the show today are Allison Maxwell and Jen Chen. And both of them are are doing something that I find especially smart when it comes to their business models. They have each built a donkey model offer. So high volume, accessible, lower price point, and they've positioned that offer as the entry point into their business. So it's not their whole business, but it is the first experience that most of their clients have with them. And in both cases it's working really well as an on ramp into their higher ticket work. So I knew that having them come on and talk a little bit about how that works, how they're making it work, and how they're Doing it with a really clear vision of what that transition looks like would be super interesting to many, if not all of us. Because I imagine that layering these kinds of offers, although it may not be like a Business 101 thing, could really improve many of our businesses and our ability to reach new clients. Welcome to this Can't Be that Hard. My name is Anna Mi Tonkin and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it, and I can show you how. All right, so before I bring my guests on, let me give you a little bit of context for how I am thinking about today's episode. We have spent the first two episodes in this pricing and money theme talking about profitability, right? What it actually means for a photography business to look at their expenses honestly figure out which of your offers is pulling its weight and how to sort of navigate the difference between volume versus price. If you don't want to raise your prices, you know, can we raise volume? So those two episodes really do set the foundation for today's episode. So if you haven't listened to 363 and 364, I would go hit pause on this and go listen to those first because they really do kind of set the table. Today's episode is about this specific structure, right? Where you put a lower priced, accessible offer at the front of your business and you do it on purpose to use it as a pipeline into your higher ticket work. And I want to be really clear on that. As we go into these interviews, you will hear that neither of these women is running model calls. These are not freebies, they are not loss leaders, they're not giveaways. These are actual profit centers that also happen to be growing their audience, building their reputations, and introducing them to the exact kinds of clients who then go on to become their ideal full price clients. So our first interview is with Jen Chen, who runs a family and newborn photography business in California and whose initial email to me about her business model really gave me a laugh and it actually almost inspired the name for today's episode. She was like, I'm not really a donkey model business. I'm more of a model mullet because I've got a donkey in the front and a unicorn in the back. And that made me laugh. So without further ado, here's Jen. Jenn Chen, thank you so much for coming on the show and being willing to chat rather quickly about your amazing sort of pseudo donkey model business where. Or I shouldn't even say pseudo. I feel like it's two distinct models within one bigger business. Is that accurate?