Jon Jeffress, owner of Deep South Focus Photography, shares his background from Tampa to Mobile, attending Davidson High School, starting college with plans for architecture, and choosing entrepreneurship instead. He reflects on his first job at Little Caesars, and discusses lessons about leadership and client service. Jon explains how Deep South Focus began in 2012 with automotive photography at car shows using an on-site mobile print and framing setup, then expanded into real estate media in 2019 and commercial work. He emphasizes the power of professional photos and video in home marketing, the value of repeat business, and key business principles like taking care of employees, avoiding micromanagement, offering benefits, and pricing appropriately to maintain cash flow.

Transcript:

Jon: I am Jon Jeffress. I own Deep South Focus Photography.

Marcus: Yay. Well, welcome to the podcast. I think it's You've been on before, correct?

Jon: Yeah, about five years

Marcus: ago. I know it's been, yeah, quite a long time. So. Wanted to bring you back and do an update. Um, but just so this, this is an encapsulated, you know, like people aren't having to go back and listen to some of the stuff that maybe you've talked about before.

We are gonna cover some of the, the same, uh, questions. So, okay. But, um, to get started, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself. Um, you know, where are you from? Where'd you go to high school? Did you go to college? If so, what'd you study? Um, anything that you might want to give us as far as backstory goes?

Jon: Sure, sure. So I'm originally from Tampa, Florida. Mm-hmm. Uh, moved to mobile in 1980 and have been here pretty much ever since then with a few stints here and there. Uh, in between, but mostly here in mobile. Um, went to Davidson [00:01:00] High School, uh, started, uh, college at USA, but did not finish. Uh, I found that career in ent entrepreneurship was more important to me than college.

Marcus: Yeah. No, that's cool. When you studied, did you say what you studied at college?

Jon: Uh, the ultimate goal was I planned on eventually going to Auburn for architecture.

Marcus: Okay, cool. So you had kind of a. Was that because you liked drawing or was that because you liked buildings or what, what was driving that?

Jon: Um, that's a lot of people when they're kids, they flip flop all, all their life, what they want to do.

Yeah. I always wanted to be an architect. Never, never faltered from that.

Marcus: Interesting. And I, I find it kind of interesting now, uh, you know, spoiler alert, you know, you take photos of houses, uh, you know, for a living. So I mean, you kind of landed. In the same area, but not,

Jon: yeah.

Marcus: Doing the same thing. So it was kind of cool.

Um, but tell us about your first job and tell us if there were any lessons that you still remember from [00:02:00] that, you know, like the workforce development kind of stuff about, you know, uh, dealing with clients or, you know, and even. Mundane stuff like how to MA floor is usually the example that I give, but Sure,

Jon: sure.

Marcus: Anything you remember from that time?

Jon: Yeah, just that, uh, hard work pays off. Uh, taking care of your clients and customers, uh, really shows management, leadership, um, your qualities and, and can lead to you getting promotions. And my first job was at Little Caesars and ultimately I ended up managing my own unit, so.

Marcus: Oh, very cool. I did not know that about you.

Jon: Yeah.

Marcus: So. I, uh, I spent some time in retail, you know, going through college and stuff, and I had aspirations of going into management at Lowe's or Home Depot. Did you ever consider, did you ever leave the dream of architecture and consider just staying on with Little Caesars and, you know, continuing on, or was that,

Jon: uh, so, uh.

While at Little Caesar's, I did have aspirations for larger types of enterprises. I, I'd explored the idea of going to [00:03:00] work for Cracker Barrel, but I didn't like the idea of having to move And food

Marcus: services isn't your thing.

Jon: Yeah, yeah. Wasn't my thing.

Marcus: Yeah, it's a brutal industry for sure. Hat's off to those that are in it.

Yeah. So, well, tell us a little bit about Deep South Focus and you know, like when did you start the business? What do you all do? You tell us a little bit.

Jon: Sure. So officially formed the business in March of 2012, and primary focus was automotive photography. So we go to car shows all over the southeast and photograph the cars as they're entering the venue.

And we, uh, have a. Mobile print studio, the car owners can come look at their photo and if they like it, we print and frame it right there on site for 'em. And that was the start of our business. But over the years, we've evolved and in 2019 started doing real estate media to help real estate agents market their listings and have blossomed from that, still do the automotive photography, and also do quite a bit of commercial, uh, media work as well.

Marcus: Nice. And so. How, I mean, I'm gonna [00:04:00] just, I'm gonna go and just, one of the things that I'm curious about is how are you finding the market today as far as real estate goes?

Jon: Seems to be pretty, pretty hot right

Marcus: now. Pretty powerful.

Jon: Yeah.

Marcus: Okay. And, um, I think that, um, I think that photography is one of the most important things that can be invested in when trying to sell a home.

And, you know, it used to be that. Realtors, and I'm not picking on realtors 'cause you know, you used to do this, but they'd walk in with their iPad or their iPhone and they would take, you know, photos and it, you know, it didn't portray the property in, you know, the best light.

Jon: And, and they still do that,

Marcus: unfortunately.

Jon: So

Marcus: they still do that. 'cause I thought that, you know, they're, I am, I got the sense that more people were, uh, investing in that upfront. Uh,

Jon: the, the, the more professional ones are Okay. Um, sadly there's still a lot that don't make that investment and. Um, those properties, when you look through [00:05:00] Zillow, you can Yeah, yeah.

You can see 'em. And, and the, the online presence, that's the first impression you have of a home. And if the pictures aren't good, people are just gonna swipe right by

Marcus: it. Well, there's so many people that are moving to this area from outside of the area.

Jon: Yeah.

Marcus: Oftentimes those pictures are the very first thing that they, you know, have as far as interaction with

Jon: Yeah.

Marcus: You know, the home in this area.

Jon: So yeah, we have stories. We had a video that we produced of a home, and the people that ultimately bought it a year later, um, saw the video and they said when they sold their business. If that house was still in the market, they're gonna buy it. Hadn't been to the house, just saw the video.

Marcus: Wow. No, that's pretty powerful. I mean, um, I mean, it's the secret. You know, my ex-wife, uh, is a realtor and I used to take all of her photos and back when we were getting started. In her business, I think it was 2004, 2005. It was even worse as far as the photos go. And she had a number of people that said that they bought from her specifically because the photos, or they went, you know, with her for, [00:06:00] uh, listings, um, because of the photos.

And I don't do that anymore. But you know, I mean, like. It just goes to show that, you know, it is an extremely important aspect of like selling any kind of property and well worth the investment. But, um, now do you remember the first gig that you had specifically in the real estate world where you thought, Hey, maybe there's something to this.

Jon: Um.

I would say BNI, which that's how we knew, know each other is from BNI. Um, one of the members of my group was a real estate agent, and he hired me to shoot a listing. And that time I had no aspirations to do real estate. Media did one for him and he booked me for another one like the following week. Wow.

Um, even though it's not as much revenue per job, it's repeat business. Yeah. And so that, that was eye opening

Marcus: and it seems like there would be a lot more of it Yeah. As well. So, um, [00:07:00] now if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, what's the one bit of wisdom that you would impart to them?

Jon: Uh, take care of your employees. They will take care of your customers, which ultimately takes care of you.

Marcus: Yeah. Have you come up with any creative ways or anything that you've done to, you know, make your employees kinda feel special or you know, anything along those lines?

Jon: Yeah, main thing is don't micromanage 'em.

You hire them for a specific reason and trust them to do their jobs and they'll do do great.

Marcus: Yeah.

Jon: Um. Employee benefits, uh, that goes a long way. Um, company cars that we provide, um, health insurance and dental insurance. Wow. Um,

Marcus: you hiring

Jon: actually,

Marcus: well, you are so, yeah. Yeah. Not for me, but I mean, you, you are hiring some photographers, uh,

Jon: look, looking for some

Marcus: Well, if you're out there

Jon: Yep.

Marcus: And you have a camera and you like to point it at things and take pictures, then Yep. Give 'em a holler. Yep. So, [00:08:00] um, are there any books. Podcasts people or organizations that have been helpful in moving you forward. And you don't have to, you don't have to hit all of them, but you know, just pick one.

Jon: Sure. Um, so lots of, lots of great books I've read, uh, customer for Life.

Um, you will be satisfied. Um, those are awesome books about how to take care of clients beyond their expectations. Um, as far as people, um, there's Eli Jones who has, uh, Norman and Young real estate photography in the Dallas Fort Worth area. He actually started a coaching business where he teaches people how to do and build their real estate media businesses.

Marcus: Yeah. Of

Jon: cool. And that's how I got in. Involved in scaling this business, uh, taking his courses.

Marcus: Nice. And how have you, because I mean, sometimes those courses can be good and sometimes it's like, eh, you know, you may get one or two things out of it, and that's really all you kind of expect when you go into it.

I mean, is there any, [00:09:00] are there any nuggets there that you can share that would be. Kind of business general that you know, uh, that you could share with us? Oh,

Jon: yeah. Again, the big thing is taking care of the clients. Um, he, he has this one story, he calls it painting the fence or painting the shed. Um, he showed up for real estate.

Ch the agent is back there painting the shed and instead of him being, I'm the photographer, that's not my job, right. He grabbed a paintbrush and helped her finish painting the shed so they could do the photos.

Marcus: Yeah. Doing whatever it takes in order to Yeah, take care of the, the clients now that's, I mean, that's really interesting.

Um, what's the most important thing that you've learned about running a business?

Jon: Um, price appropriately. If you can't make money, you can't survive. So it's not a race to the bottom.

Marcus: I always tell people to focus on cash flow, and the reason why is because. Without cash [00:10:00] flow. If you, if it gets constricted, then bad things happen.

Yeah. Right. And so whenever you're focusing on that, it's like you want to focus on the inputs, right? So am I, do I need to advertise more to get more leads, to get, you know, more, uh, conversations with people, to close more deals or, you know, whatever. But you know, it's always telling 'em to focus on the cash flow because.

It seems to be the killer of, of, um, you know, most businesses and, you know, most new entrepreneurs don't, don't realize that,

Jon: yeah.

Marcus: That they can have plenty of receivables, but if they don't have any cash, then they're kind of, you know, SOL.

Jon: Exactly.

Marcus: So, um, how do you like to unwind?

Jon: Uh, I enjoy cycling. Uh, don't do it enough.

Um, unfortunately, staying too busy for that. Yeah, it

Marcus: has time. Yeah.

Jon: But, uh, that's something I really enjoy doing on the weekends. Go ride down a Bayfront [00:11:00] road down, down along the bay.

Marcus: Okay. I was gonna say road cycling or, uh,

Jon: road

Marcus: cycling. I mean, mountain biking isn't really a thing around here, so I mean, I, I get it.

Jon: Yeah.

Marcus: You know, we ride off road around here. Yeah. Trail riding. Yeah, trail riding. So. Um, I think we, you know, you and I bonded about that, you know, a number of years ago where I was, uh, I was also an avid cyclist. Yeah. Um, but I just, I, I don't know. I am, I did the accomplishment that I really kind of wanted to do, and I hung my bike up on the wall and I had.

I haven't really missed it since.

Jon: Yeah.

Marcus: You know,

Jon: I'm kind of a yo-yo, two years on, two years off. So

Marcus: yeah, I love the sport. I still love watching it and stuff, but, um, it's just, it is very time consuming. So, um, so I've got 12 rapid fire questions for you, uhoh. Okay. So just spit out an answer. These are easy.

So for instance, first one, what's your favorite type of music?

Jon: Um, sticks.

Marcus: Sticks. The band. The band specifically? Yep. Okay. Very good. Um, what's your favorite type of food?

Jon: Uh, pizza. [00:12:00]

Marcus: Favorite restaurant in lower Alabama?

Jon: Uh, poor baby.

Marcus: Nice. Favorite city outside of mobile.

Jon: Uh, Tampa

Marcus: City you want to travel to but have yet to visit?

Jon: Uh, Seattle.

Marcus: What comes to mind when I say guilty pleasure?

Jon: Um. Chocolate and strawberry covered cheesecake.

Marcus: Back to poor baby. Um, dogs, cats, or none of the above.

Jon: Dogs.

Marcus: Summer or winter?

Jon: Summer

Marcus: and a favorite movie or TV show?

Jon: Pulp. Fiction.

Marcus: Really?

Jon: Yep.

Marcus: Favorite holiday besides Christmas? Nobody, everybody always says Christmas, but What's your favorite holiday?

Jon: Uh, Thanksgiving, because I usually go visit Fram. Family. Family for Thanksgiving?

Marcus: Yeah. Um, favorite color?

Jon: Blue

Marcus: and favorite cereal?

Jon: Cheerios.

Marcus: Okay, I'll, I'll go with that. Um, and then not, uh, rapid [00:13:00] fire, you know, what are you most thankful for?

Jon: Um, family and friends.

Marcus: Yeah. Even with everything going on, that's the only thing that really matters, right?

Jon: Yeah.

Marcus: Um. Why don't you tell people where you can find you?

Jon: Uh, deep south focus.com online, um, on Facebook, uh, deep South Focus and Deep South Focus Re and Instagram as well. Deep South Focus and Deep South Focus underscore re.

Marcus: Very cool. Um, anyway, I want to thank you for coming in to be on the podcast. To wrap up any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share?

Jon: Yeah, just, uh, get out there and, and make it happen. Anyone can be successful if they put their mind to it.

Marcus: No, that's good. Yeah, it really is. Um, I, you know, I'll, I'll share a final thought. Uh, another friend of mine is starting a business right now and just made his first sale and completed the service that he's offering.[00:14:00]

And it was interesting to talk to somebody that was at that stage because having been in business for. 20 plus years now. Um, I think oftentimes we forget what that's like that first, you know, that first sale. And, uh, it was just interesting to talk to him about, you know, uh, about that and, you know, encourage him in that and, and stuff like that.

It's, you know. It was just a, an interesting conversation and I was gonna relate that back to something, but I don't remember what it was. Anyway, senior moment. Um, well, John, I appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur. It's been great talking with

Jon: you.

Yeah, thanks for having me again.

Marcus: Absolutely. All

Jon: right.

All.