About 6 months ago, I stumbled across Ramit Sethi. He had a blog post called "6 Ways to Get Your First Client." I honestly can't remember exactly how I stumbled across him, but I think I read the post because I wanted to learn how to send more engaging cold emails to people.

Anyway, after reading the blog I was hooked and immediately subscribed to his email list and bought his personal finance book I Will Teach You to Be Rich.

He started sending me a few emails (pre-written autoresponders) with amazing business advice. I learned a ton of things about online marketing and growing a business using modern technology.

​As a headshot photographer running a business, I'm always on the lookout for new strategies to get more clients as efficiently as possible. And guess what the topic of one of the first emails he sent me was?

​Stop trying so many new strategies to get more clients - just focus on a few core things.

I was blown away because that was exactly my problem! I kept trying all kinds of new things constantly, and I rarely ever followed through on just one thing to completion. I would get distracted whenever I heard about the "next big thing." And then I would lose much of the progress I made on my last idea. I kept running the same pattern over and over again like a hamster trapped in a wheel.

After a series of great emails that connected with me on a deep level, I was so hooked that I emailed him about investing in his course ZTL (Zero to Launch). Within 5 minutes he responded personally, asked me a bit about my business, and then said I should not join ZTL and instead wait for a more advanced (and more expensive) course called 6 Figure Consulting. The reason he gave was that I was further along in my business than most people who join ZTL, so I wouldn't get much out of it.

​This was an interesting email to receive. First off, how often does someone tell you not to buy their product and to wait for a more expensive option? I'm sure I would have gotten some value from ZTL, but was he just trying to up-sell me (like a mean rich guy)? I rarely suggest to my clients that they wait and buy a more expensive headshot package if they want to buy a more affordable one right now. I want them to get what they can afford and get them at least rolling with some new headshots for the time being, until they can possibly afford something better down the line.

Now, normally the cost of Ramit's more expensive course would not be a problem, but I had just had many thousands of dollars of unexpected expenses, so I told him I'd wait 2-3 months before joining because I didn't want to spend the money right away. So he told me to email him whenever I was ready.

​About a month later I emailed to ask him for some free advice (which is probably not the best thing to do when someone normally charges a ton of money for consulting services). He quickly emailed me back, saying that we had previously discussed joining his class, and that I already knew the next step. I replied that I was planning on joining in about a month now that business was picking up again and income was coming back in, and I asked whether a new strategy I had recently learned about was worth implementing in my business.

So what was his response?

​It came across as very mean and abrupt… That comment hurt and I got a little offended and angry by it.

Imagine if I were to email a client saying, "Honestly, I feel like you should just ask a friend to take your pictures for free. Our headshots are not right for you."

The person would probably get angry at me because it basically sounds like I'm saying, "Come back to me when you're serious. Our work is above you."

​On his website, Ramit seems so cool, friendly, personable, and understanding. Why would he say something like that? It's just not what I was expecting at all.

Well, luckily I'm not the kind of person that takes things personally (or if I do, I get over it fast), and I always look at things from the perspective of "What's great about this?" (something I picked up from Tony Robbins).

​So what was great about what he said?

I realized he's not actually just some mean rich guy. Ramit Sethi might be a genius.

He can read people like a book. I'm almost positive he sent me that message because he knew it would get me to take action.

Basically, by insinuating I wasn't good enough (or serious enough) for his paid classes, he asked me to prove him wrong.

And I was up for the challenge.

The reason I decided to write this post is because I think there's a HUGE lesson here for all photographers (and anyone else) reading this post who runs a business. How can you use tough love when it's necessary to get clients to take action to help themselves if you believe your product or service is the ethical and logical solution to their problem?

​I'm positive Ramit was not sending that email with a sneaky reverse psychology intent to just get me to work hard and eventually join his course and pay him money. I'm sure he doesn't need my money. I believe his real motive was that he wanted me to get motivated to take action and break through my plateau! Whether I paid him or not didn't matter to him.

Ramit saw that I'm someone who loves a challenge, and so he sent me a message that challenged me. He loves to help people, and doesn't care if he comes off like a mean person while he's doing it - all he cares about is whether he gets through to people.

He is willing to risk looking bad just to help someone take their life (or business) to the next level.

If we all were like that... how awesome would that be?

​I believe it's our moral obligation to be completely honest with people we care about (especially clients). We should recommend they wait and purchase a more expensive package later (or not work with us at all if we’re not a right fit). We shouldn't just give people what they want to make a sale if it won't truly provide them value. We shouldn't worry about what people think of us, but instead only worry about whether we are actually helping them.

I'm grateful for the metaphorical kick Ramit gave me via email because a few months later I did, in fact, join his 6 Figure Consulting course.  I was so floored by what I learned there and the results I had (such as using a proposal template in the program to land the largest video production client we’ve ever had) that I also wound up investing in his Earn 1K program to learn even more.

Since following the 6 Figure Consulting program, City Headshots is on track to earn $200k more revenue this year, and I feel so much more confident in my business dealings with clients.

So to answer the initial question… is Ramit Sethi a mean rich guy or a genius? Honestly, I don't think he's either. I just think he’s a regular guy who cares about others more than himself.

And if we all shifted our focus outward instead of inward by helping others, I think we'd each be able to live a rich life and completely redefine our image.

What do you think of Ramit Sethi? And what do you think about being honest versus being nice? I'd love to hear from you.

Shoot me an email or leave a comment below. I personally read every response I get. 🙂

And if you want more great articles like this, sign up to our email list. You'll also be entered to win a $650 headshot session!

I'm in the hiring process for a new photographer right now, so I figured I'd write an article explaining what I and other employers are looking for when we hire people. I've hired over 50 people since 2007 through my films, businesses, and personal life, and so I've developed a somewhat decent process to help me save time and ensure I consistently bring on the right people.

My goal with this article is to explain the most important things to consider when you're looking for a job or looking to move up in your career.

​Here is the process I follow when I'm looking to hire someone:

1. Post the job listing - I go online and post, saying I'm looking for someone to work for our company. Why am I hiring? Because I want to save time and get more done, and I'm willing to trade money for that.
2. Wait for responses - I get 100's of responses within the first 2-3 days of my job posting because so many people are looking for work (jobs, acting work, or freelance work).
3. Narrow them down as fast as possible - I quickly sift through (I don't read cover letters more than 2 short paragraphs), and find that about 80% of the responses I get are from people who have no idea what they are doing and I would never realistically consider them. Why do I sift through so quickly? Because I don't have time to look at so many different responses - I have a lot of other work to do. I don't like when people send me long cover letters - they rarely get read.
4. Email the top 20% - The final 20% of people I'm left with will typically get an email response from me asking them for some further info. Why do I ask for further info? Because I need to qualify and ensure that the person I'm going to hire meets certain criteria, such as being legally allowed to work, agreeing to the pay rate, and being quick to respond to emails.
5. Wait for responses - About half of them will respond within a day or two. The people who take more than a day or two to respond are cut - I assume they won't be reliable.
6. Set up brief screening phone calls - I like to do some quick phone calls (no more than 10 minutes) to ask some preliminary questions and gauge whether the person is good enough to do an in-person interview with me. Why do I do phone calls? Because it's too time-consuming to bring people in for real interviews, and I want to ensure they don't have some general issue that would be a waste of my time, such as being very rude, forgetting about our scheduled call, etc. 
   
7. Do the in-person interviews - I'll bring in the top 5-10 people to interview in person. Why do I interview in-person? Because I need to meet these people and see what they are like. Believe it or not, some people smell bad, some people don't have good manners, some people are 10 minutes late to their interview, etc. I want to weed these people out and meeting in-person makes it easy to do so.
8. I make the final selection - The one(s) who seem to care the most about my company, seem excited and interested to work with us, and have great skills are the ones who I hire.

Note - this process is the same, regardless of whether I'm hiring an actor, an employee, or a freelance contractor (where I would be considered a client).

I care about a lot when I'm hiring, but not about the things you'd probably expect. For instance, I don't care if you are great at using Nikon cameras. And I don't care if you know how to do clamshell lighting.

Regardless of what position I'm hiring for, personality traits are what really matter to me. If you can hit on each of these when you're sending out your cover letter and interviewing in-person, you'll be light years ahead of everyone who just assumes they know what the employer is looking for and tells them about all their "features" (i.e. skills).

• Make it Easy - I want someone who can make it easy for me to hire them. This all starts with the cover letter. Keeping your cover letter very short and readable while highlighting the two biggest benefits I'll get by hiring you is a good place to start. And then make it easy for me to interview you by showing up on time, being friendly, and showing me you're interested.
• Experience - I want someone who knows a lot about the specific thing they are being hired to do. And if they aren't experienced, they need to show me they are a quick learner by giving an example of something they learned on the job in the past. I honestly care more about quick learners than skills because skills can easily be trained.
• Looks Friendly - I want someone who has a photo of themself that shows a genuine smile. I can't necessarily tell your personality and if you don't have a good photo of yourself, or you look mean in it, I might not consider you - I have literally not hired someone based on their headshot alone because they looked unfriendly in it.
• Availability - I want someone who is not too needy in terms of working certain days or needing certain hourly minimums. The more desperate for cash or needy you seem, the less likely I will hire you because I feel you'll like you'll be more of a liability than an asset to me.
• Provides Added Value - I want someone who is able to provide me with even more value than I was expecting. If you have additional skills or personality traits that could be an asset to me or my company, I would love to know about them.
• Cares About the Position - I want someone who really cares about the job and can explain why they want the job. I don't want you to work for me if it's just for the money, because it means you won't do your best work. You have to really want it for the emotional reasons for me to bring you on.
• Honesty, Reliability, and Responsibility - I care about people who are honest and willing to be vulnerable. If you make a mistake and don't own up to it and apologize, but blame others, I will not hire you. I believe personal responsibility, honesty, and reliability are the top personality traits needed for a great team members.
• Ambition (to a degree) - I want someone who is ambitious enough to want to help me move my company forward, but I don't want someone who is so ambitious that they are planning to leave the company within a year or less to go start their own business. They need to be a team player and should want to grow with us.
• Emotionally Stable - This can be seen as offensive, and I apologize if it comes across that way, but as an employer, I want to be sure that you're easy to work with. I have had team members in the past who were on an emotional rollercoaster, and it led to inappropriate outbursts at work and fights between team members, which was bad for team morale. Most employers want someone who is generally cool, collected, calm, and rolls with the punches.

If I were to summarize everything into one all-encompassing statement, it would be this:

I want to bring someone onto my team who is competent, easy to work with, and will provide me with benefits, not features.

By benefits, I mean the following: I don't want you to tell me that you know how to use Excel and have a ton of experience working with dSLR cameras... Those are important, yes, but they are not the whole story. Why should I care? Why should I care you know how to do those things? Everyone applying for the job should know those things.

When you pitch yourself, explain the real benefits. "I know how to use dSLR cameras, and what that means to you is that you won't need to train me on how to use them. It means I will be ready from the get-go to immediately start working with clients. It means I can jump into it right at the beginning, and because I'm a quick learner, I'll save you tons of time on training, and I'll get the hang of it right away." Or, "I know how to use Excel, and that means I can serve your clients in a much more organized way. I will always be super quick to respond, which means clients are happy and you'll get more referrals."

At the end of the day, when you're applying for a job or moving up in your company, it all comes down to explaining how you'll benefit the organization or the person hiring you. What's in it for them? They don't care about your skills; they care about what those skills mean for them.

One caveat: Remember that if you're going through an HR Department, in some cases they might not be interested in discussing specific benefits you offer. In those cases, focusing on the personality qualities outlined above will likely make the biggest difference.

I hope this helps you in some way. Do you have ideas on how to apply this to your life? And do you have your own strategies to be yourself while still being professional? I'd love to hear them from you.

Shoot me an email or leave a comment below. I personally read every response I get. 🙂

And if you want more great tips like this, sign up to our email list. You'll also be entered to win a $650 headshot session!