103: Justin Benson – Aftershoot Founder Top Tips & How To Revolutionize Your Business With AI
July 20, 2023
“Look at AI as a tool that can help you grow your business or give you more time back if your business is already grown.”
JUSTIN BENSON
Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Justin Benson – Founder of Aftershoot!
Check out some of the biggest points from Justin’s interview below:
How was Aftershoot born?
So, you know, being a wedding photographer, I was shooting anywhere from 40 to 60 weddings, sometimes 70 a year. And that was a lot for any for a one man, one man show, culling, editing everything all by myself. It was definitely a lot. But it was kind of what I just, you know, again, the popularity and the whatever just kind of drove me into that. And, you know, I have four kids. So for me, four kids is a lot without running a wedding photography business.
Yeah. So, you know, it just there needed to be solutions and and how it ended up happening. It actually, it’s not my idea 100% my idea. I can’t. So my co-founder Harshit, he’s. He’s the lead man and he posted on or he was reaching out to photographers kind of cold calling photographers because he had the idea he saw family and friends and he worked in tech. So he knew the capabilities of AI.
Um, and he was like, I could probably solve this problem that, like my family and friends have. And I was like, okay, when I heard somebody was talking about even the concept of of some sort of automation with it, I was like, I don’t know what that means, but I want in. I want any help with culling that I can possibly have. So I reached out to him via Instagram and we just went back and forth a couple of times. And and and then he built it, right? He took the ideas that he got from everybody and built after shoot 1.0. And it was terrible. It was awful. Right. Like so there was I think he the the stats are funny. I mean he worked really hard. He reached out to 700 photographers, maybe 200, you know, even responded to him at all. And then of the 250 actually said, yes, let’s talk and let’s go over stuff. And then from there, he sent those 50 people, the version of the app version 1.0, and just said, Hey, try it.
Let me know what you think. Ten people replied, You know, eight of them said, Give up. You will never, ever make this happen. One of them said, Hey, this is cool. Maybe there’s a way for it to work. And I wrote back and I was like, Here is the 5000 things that you need to change in order for this to even be a viable option. And then from that, like, I think within two weeks I had an update and then we just kept going back and forth. And then before I knew it, like every day I was talking to him and I was like, okay, I’m in.
I mean, how many how many photographers get into photography? Because it’s a great business decision, right? We all get into photography because we love taking photos and so we spend more time behind the computer than we do taking photos in most circumstances.
And that’s not really you know, you have to run a business, but you really, if you’re doing it because you love taking pictures, you need to get behind the camera and take more pictures. So that’s kind of the goal here. So, you know, it’s a problem that apparently is No. One outside of our industry because he saw it and he was like, yeah, I definitely, you know, he wanted to help his family and, you know, get their time back. He had an uncle that was a photographer, and he wanted his uncle to actually just not have to worry about all the the post-production stuff. So, yeah, it was it just one of those fate things where, like, I just happened to see a random Facebook post of somebody saying, Hey, this guy wants to help photographers. And I was like, I want help.
What would you say to someone who is worried about using AI?
So, so what’s really cool about after AfterShoot is you still do everything right. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s not it’s not a position to it’s not outsourcing or sending it off to somebody to do the work for you. It is still you. You’re still involved. You still review the call, you still review the edits, you still tweak the edits, you still tweak the call.
So you get to be 100% involved in the process still. So it’s not quite the same as outsourcing. Right. And I and I’ve seen that to where people are like, oh, so I send these photos to you and you do everything and it comes back to me and I’m like, No, no, it’s on your computer. It all happens right here. It really is just that assistant that’s getting you a little bit further along in the process. But like what photographers actually do with this tool, it’s totally up to them, right? Some people love to share about it and like, Oh my God, is really helping my business. Other people don’t share about it and they just use it. And and that’s their their way to just help themselves out. You know, some photographers will use it to put an advantage to their business and other ones are just like, hey, you know, I’m still going to give my 12 week turnaround time or whatever it is, but I’m going to just take those 12 weeks to enjoy my life instead.
So, you know, it really does depend on what position you’re in, in your business and how you want to push it. I mean, we have one photographer who was a great use case, and what he started doing, he would shoot on Saturday, shoot a wedding, and then he’d have it ready to deliver by Monday. And then he would immediately do album sales because they would be on like their honeymoon. They have all this fresh money from the from all the gifts and everything, and they’re on their honeymoon and they’re really enjoying their life. And all of a sudden they get a gallery and an album design. And he saw a 60% increase in album purchases. Wow. So started making all sorts of more money just by turning him around faster. Whereas then, like I said, there’s the contrary of that, which is, you know, people who are just like, yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I can take on more sessions. Instead of having a huge backlog, my backlog has been reduced.
So now I’m just taking on extra family sessions and different things that again, the workload is less per each job. So I’m going to take on more and make more money that way. Um, you know, and then there’s, there’s a couple people that I’ve spoken to who actually they upcharge so they say, Hey, I can skip you to the head of the line If you want your photos faster, I can have them for you if they, you know, within, you know, four days or three days or whatever they decide, I can have them for you this quickly. But it’s a it’s a $500 fee or a $1,000 fee, but I can get them turned around faster. And they say the hit rate on that is really low. But since the software is so inexpensive, if they sell one of it at $1,000, they paid for the software twice over, right? And so they’re like, yeah, I may only get like 2 or 3 hits on it, but that’s $3,000 is almost a whole nother wedding’s worth of income just by doing what I’m already doing using AI.
If you could add one final piece of advice, something that’s made a difference in your personal life or your business life, what would that piece of advice be?
Yeah. So the Golden Nugget takeaway here is absolutely look at AI as a tool that can help you grow your business or give you more time back if your business is already grown. Right. I is this magical creation that it really it really is going to change the way we operate in this industry in all industries.
Right? So this is your opportunity. Like I said, if you’re diving in now, you you help shape it, but you’re also ahead of the curve, right? Don’t wait until five years from now when every single photographer in this industry is going to be using AI to its fullest capability. Learn it now. And yes, you may hit some barriers, right? Like I know that when you get started in after shoot, there’s definitely it’s a different process. It’s not culling the way we think of culling. It’s not going one by one by one and picking out what you want. Instead, it’s here’s a presentation of five very similar photos. Here’s the one we believe is the best. If you disagree, look through and then if you don’t like the photo, look through and swap it and change it. But if you agree, let the AI make that decision for you, alleviate some of that workload for yourself. And then, like I said, just the more you use it, the more intelligent it becomes.
So, you know, you can really get ahead of the curve. And this is in all aspects, right? This isn’t for after shoots purposes. Absolutely. The culling. Take your time, go through, experiment, play with it. Don’t wait until you really need it to start it right. Open it up now and play with it before your wedding season starts or before your, you know, busy season so that you get used to it. Do the same with the editing. Upload your catalogs, train your profile, get all of these pieces put together before you really need them and experiment. And you know, AI is so experimental with everything right now. I mean, it’s really a great time to just play with it and get accustomed to it and buy into the system. I mean, right now we have this amazing deal that lets you buy into our system for a flat rate. So we have something called the Founder’s Deal Unlimited calling, unlimited editing. It’s $499 a year.
Thank you!
Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Justin for joining us on the show!
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That’s it for me this week, I hope you all enjoyed this episode.
See you soon,
Sally
About Justin Benson
