MAI: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Posers podcast, the place where we skip the fluff. Say the quiet parts out loud and dig into what really matters. This is where photography, psychology, and business collide. I'm Jody, your host, and I'm bringing you my raw takes, hard wins, and a whole lot of unfiltered honesty about what it takes to build a photography business that actually connects and makes money.
So ladies, grab your headphones and get your tits up and your ears open because we are going to build something really incredible together.
Well, hello and welcome all of my beautiful posers. Today we are just going to dive right in. This might be the first time you ever hear me say this in my life, but today. There is no foreplay needed because today's topic doesn't need an introduction. She is known around the neighborhood. She lives rent free.
In our heads, she is mayor. She is governor. She is [00:01:00] president. Okay. Today we're talking about the number one question every photographer asks multiple times throughout their business. We are talking about the question. How can I raise my prices? Shock warning here. There is only one answer to this question.
And anything you've heard anywhere else, I am sorry to say it is wrong. Boom, right out of the fucking gates today. I'm like, Jody is right. The rest of the world is wrong here. We go, okay, let's talk about something that affects every single dollar that comes into your business. Whether you're charging $200 for a session or $20,000 for a wedding, it is not your skill.
It is not your gear. It is not even your experience level. It's something way more powerful than all of that combined, and it is called perceived value. And once you understand it, you'll never look at your pricing, your clients, [00:02:00] or how to run your business in the same way again. So what is perceived value?
Perceived value is the worth your potential clients assign to your work before they ever book you. It's the value that they give your business based on what they see, what they feel, and what they experience when they encounter your brand. It is not the actual value of what you deliver. It is the value that they believe.
They are going to get from working with you. And that belief, it shapes everything. It determines who inquires, who books, how much they're willing to spend, how much trust they hand over, how much grace they give you in tough moments, and how likely they are to refer you to other people like them.
Perceived value isn't just a quote unquote, like nice branding. It is your price tag's best friend. Okay. Just moments ago, right before I was in the studio recording this episode, I was [00:03:00] sitting in my car, car cocooning, as I always do before I come into work, and an Instagram DM came through, okay? Now this is completely normal for me.
I run so much content I. Through stories and social media that the main point of contact for booking is through my dms. So here's what the message said, but the middle isn't all that important. It's the first and the last line that let me know that not only is this a five figure booking for me, but that I'm also doing my job at controlling my perceived value.
Here it is. This client said, or actually this potential client said, 'cause I haven't booked them yet, she said, hi. Hi. I am obsessed with you. I'm the chief of staff at yada, yada, yada. We absolutely need a refresh on our headshot. It's a group of 12 to 15 people, dah, dah, dah. I was interested in doing a shoot with you where we could get individual photos and group photos, and that we could have these for various purposes.
I additionally want your ex. Expertise on styling everyone so that we have a very cohesive and polished look. [00:04:00] Looking forward to hearing back exclamation point, exclamation point. Hearts, hearts, hearts. Then in response to that, I had to make sure that I manage her expectations properly from jump, and I told her that as much as this is a very sweet message, my answer has to be no, because my studio isn't big enough to accommodate a group that size, and her response to my honesty.
D is exactly what I was hoping she would say. She said, we will find a way to make it work even if the group photo doesn't happen in the studio. The only thing that I know is that we need you in our lives. Uh, yes, please. I followed up with some pricing after that, and my pricing went into the five figures.
I wanted to make sure that we were on the same page. I asked her if. This is an alignment for her and her. Next words were, this is music to my ears. Let's go. Okay. So that is exactly what happens when you work daily to create [00:05:00] perceived value in your business. I don't even niche down into branding work all that hard, and these inquiries are still rolling through my dms.
I wanna make sure that we're on the same page here. This episode is not about charging what you are worth because baby girl, you are priceless. I want you to note the change in the wording around the idea because we are not charging what you are worth. We are charging what your work is worth. We are charging what your business can demand and that unlike your personal worth, your work does have a market price.
But you are in control over it. So that question, how can I raise my prices? That number is attached to your work. It's your price tag, your package, your minimum spend. It's not to you as a person. So we need to separate those two things. And honestly, it's actually not even about pretty photos [00:06:00] or saying the word luxury in your messaging or designer labels or European bookings.
It's about. How people perceive what you do. Have you ever known another photographer whose work, in your opinion, isn't as good as yours, or isn't as good as most yet they're running a highly profitable, successful business or. Maybe you even look at my work and you think, yeah, sure. Jody's work is decent, but she's not fucking adding Leitz.
Okay?
Yet you still know that I'm running a multi six figure business. Maybe you're in a Facebook group and, uh, Facebook groups are kind of notorious for this. You see the posts that are happening and you know, they have like, oh, photo for attention, and you see that caption that's connected to that image and it says something like, oh, I just had my first 10 case sale.
And you're [00:07:00] scratching your head like, how, how are these people doing this? Well. My friend, welcome to the world of perceived value. Okay, so permission to get a little down and dirty and abrasive with the truth here, because I see this all the time, photographers wonder why they aren't getting bookings, why they aren't able to raise their prices.
They complain about the industry being slow, or their market is too saturated, and then. I'll watch their business and how their business moves for the next few weeks, and immediately I can answer why they aren't booked or why they can't raise their prices or why they are stuck. Because without fail, they are playing small.
They are failing to show up either with consistency or in ways that their business needs them to show up, and they are failing to attach any kind of value to what they do. Here's the thing, you do not get to complain about not being big. [00:08:00] When you show up small, you do not get to complain about those around you growing when shrinking is the choice that you make every day.
And most importantly, you do not get to complain about your prices. When you choose to place no value on your work, you cannot raise your prices until you control your perceived value. Now, look, I wasn't always averaging $4,000 a shoot. But the difference is when I was charging $400, I still acted like I was charging 4,000.
I studied fine art. I obsessed over interior design. I obsessed over fashion magazines. I obsessed over other photographers and their blogs and reminder. This was way back in 2010. Blogs were a really big thing, so I learned what luxury looked like. More importantly what it felt like. I curated my Instagram like it was a luxury [00:09:00] magazine.
Every image aligned with the brand. My stories, those were for my clients to get to know me, but my feed that was for the future of my business and not everyone made it to the grid. The grid was sacred. The grid still is. Sacred. Even before I was charging $25,000 for a wedding, I made it my challenge, my mission, my job.
To make every single wedding that I was shooting look like they had paid me $25,000 because perceived value isn't about how much the wedding costs. It's about taking what is in front of you, refining it, and repackaging it for your client, for the vendor team, and for your brand. Controlling perceived value isn't just about luxury brands or designers shoes.
It's about how you move through the details of your business. It is every touchpoint. It's the polish of your website, the tone of your copy, the way you handle objections, the confidence you bring to the table before anyone else [00:10:00] gives it to you. Your perceived value is the first thing that your potential clients feel, and it's the last thing that they remember, and it is the only way to raise your prices without lowering your standards.
The first and biggest impact of perceived value isn't even what you charge. It is who your business aligns with. Think of your business, like your dating life. This is something that I constantly say People are dating your business, okay? If you are thinking about your business, like your dating life, you are not gonna date a dusty man with a group chat that is full of like toxic bros who I don't know, don't believe in therapy, right?
Because guess what happens if you do this? In your personal life, if you do this, you start drinking. You stop growing, you bring yourself down to their level. You start to see the world with that n energy just like they do, right? You live in scarcity. You doubt your worth. The same things happen in [00:11:00] your business if you build your, if you build your business.
To align with low investment high demand clients who don't value what you do, you'll shrink yourself to fit into the box that they've already placed you in. And guess what? That box is ugly. That box wears cargo shorts. That box has granite countertops and tafta drapes, and it has no room for you. You've got to align your brand, your image, your tone, your entire client experience with people who are already on your level or aspiring to be on your level.
Something that I used to do whenever I was just starting my business and I still continue to do. To this day is I publicly lift up other women in my city. I use my social media and my newsletter to be talking about other women in business, other women that I want to align myself with other businesses that have the same ideal client as [00:12:00] my own.
I constantly spend time on my social media, getting other people booked and busy. It's the fastest way to network and build your audience and. It's not just about a rising tide for you and for other photographers. I built a boat big enough so that other industries and other women could rise together, could be associated with one another.
We could share our audiences of like-minded, business-oriented, growth focused, affluent potential clients. And I did this even before my wallet measured up to that group. When I was shooting weddings, I didn't just shoot weddings. I aligned myself with the best vendors in town. I talked about them like we were building a dream team, and guess what?
The more that I posted about the great businesses that were on my go-to dream team, the more people wanted that team. So when those [00:13:00] other vendors had bookings that hadn't even made it to my inbox yet to inquire, I had already paved the path for the obvious choice without me even doing any of the extra legwork to land that client.
All right, so we talked about what perceived value is, and we've talked about why. It's the very thing that sets your price point and your positioning before you even get a chance to explain yourself. And I just gave you the number one way to get your work into the right circles, right? But now let's talk about how to control it, because once your business has eyes on it, you have to deliver because here's the thing that most photographers miss.
Perceived value doesn't just happen at the inquiry. It's being shaped long before someone ever clicks that little contact button on your website. It's every single touch point, every glance, every moment that someone scrolls past your name or sees your work tag, that is where the magic is happening. So let's walk through [00:14:00] it step by step, and I'll show you how to raise your perceived value and your prices at every single client touchpoint.
Okay, let's go. All right, number one, your social media feed. This is your magazine cover, your first impression, your storefront window on fifth Avenue. And just like a high-end brand, you don't ever put every single item in the window, right? You choose the ones that will stop people in their tracks. So what are you posting?
Are you curating with intention or are you throwing spaghetti at the algorithm and praying that it sticks? Your feed should make someone stop and say, okay, who is this? I wanna see more. Show the work that you want more of. Use language that matches your dream client's world. Be bold, be clear, be selective.
It's like you're the editor in chief of your own brand, and I need you to own that power. All right? I once had somebody ask me, [00:15:00] don't you feel bad that you are not posting every single one of your clients on your feed? And I said. Absolutely not. My feed is for my business. It is not for my client. My social media stories, sure, everybody is going to get posted on my stories.
If I do a photo shoot, there is going to be either behind the scenes or the finished product or both in some kind of capacity going through my stories. This is intentional. This is what shows people my perceived value out into the world. This is what shows them. I am booked. I am busy. I am constantly working.
I am out there, right? So every single client that comes into my business is going to get space. In my stories, it deletes after 24 hours. It does not [00:16:00] have any sort of long-term effects, consequences, ramifications on what my business looks like to the next client. Right? But so whenever that person asked me, don't you feel bad that you're not posting everyone?
No, I absolutely don't because. I am the CEO of my business. That grid, like I said, it is sacred. It is what gets me more work. I am going to curate it. I am going to show it as if it's a mini website for me. All right, so let's, let's keep going. Number two, your social media stories like I was just talking about.
This is where people fall in love with you. This is where they decide if they want to be in your world. This is where they connect. This is where they feel like they know you. If we're talking about the three main. Pillars of marketing, like, know, and trust. This is the no part. This is where they get [00:17:00] to feel as though they are your best friend.
So here's what I want you to do. I want you to show behind the scenes, I want you to share the transformations happening in your business. Let people feel. What it's like to work with you. Tag your clients, of course, hype up other vendors, obviously. Make your audience feel like VIPs, watching it all unfold in real time.
Let them feel as though they are part of what you are building, okay? But keep it elevated. Keep it intentional. Keep it on brand. All right. This goes back to what we were talking about in previous episodes. Uh, we want to make sure that even though we are showing our personalities, we are showing behind the scenes, we are showing all of these parts of who we are as individuals.
We have to remember that our clients are seeing this and that we are sending messages to them about the perceived value of our [00:18:00] business. Alright, so your stories are for your clients. Your feed is for your business. Let's go to the next touchpoint. Your website. This is your home. This is your universe.
This is the place where like dream clients go to say, okay, I'm sold. Let's do this. So I want you to ask yourself, does your website feel like you're walking into. A beautifully lit, gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing boutique or amazing restaurant, or does it feel like a yard sale? It needs to be clean, it needs to be focused.
It needs to be visual. It needs to be confident, right? If you have not ever read the book by Donald Miller, that is, I think it's called something along the lines of building a Brand Story or. Something like that. I don't have it right in front of me, and I actually didn't make notes on this. But I love that book.
He speaks so much about clarity, [00:19:00] cleanliness, focused, confident websites, and I'm absolutely obsessed with his methodology. So, go run, get that book and read it. Okay. Your images should be powerful, but few, right? Again, we are not putting everything on our website. We are curating. Your copy needs to sound like you.
But elevated. And please, for the love of all things sacred, do not make people go digging for your pricing or your booking link. You don't have to put your full pricing. I know that this is a debate that goes across our industry. I would suggest that if you are a higher charging, higher priced photographer, that you would at least put a sentence that says, starting at.
And whatever you are charging so that you can at least know. Whether or not the [00:20:00] clients who are sending in booking forms or inquiries that you guys are aligned on the pricing so that nobody is feeling as though they are wasting their time. Right. Whether or not you put your pricing on your website in full, that's a decision that is up to you.
Uh, I use. To do it in exactly the way that I just said. I like to have a line that says, starting prices at a certain number, right? Uh, this is where you will lose bookings automatically if people have to go on a scavenger hunt to find your contact page, or if your book now button isn't available within the first.
Five seconds of their scroll, you will lose people. Your website needs to be professionally designed in a way that they can navigate so that they feel that refined experience. Alright. Also, on your website, you are going to have an email capture form. [00:21:00] Now we're getting really serious here. Okay. They are not just scrolling anymore.
Your email capture, they are opting in. They are giving you something precious that is their attention, right? They are giving you your email address or their email address. They are giving you direct access to them. So what are you giving them in return? That opt-in, that guide, that lookbook, it needs to feel like it costs.
Something. Again, we are controlling perceived value. They know whether or not something is valuable for them. So if your freebie looks cheap. They're going to assume that the rest of your business is too, or if your lookbook looks cheap, or if whatever it is that you have put together is not designed to the same caliber that your website and your Instagram feed and every other touch point that you have within your business, it is not designed to that level.
That will be a stop sign for them. [00:22:00] So make it gorgeous, make it polished. Make it something that they would proudly print and leave. On their bedside table at night because the moment that someone downloads that lead magnet, they are already deciding how much they would be willing to pay for you.
Alright, so then they are going into your email funnel, right? They are now inside. Of your world. This is where we warm them up. This is where we build trust, we establish authority, and most importantly, we nurture belief, right? Every email should say, here's what I do, here's what it's like to work with me, and here's why it's worth it, not just Here's my packages.
No, this is your story, your transformation, your proof. You are building value with every sentence. If they've read your emails and they're still shocked by your pricing, it means you didn't do your job yet. [00:23:00] So rewrite the story until it lands. All right. After this, you're going on a booking meeting or you're having a discovery call, whichever it is, no matter what.
This is your big moment. You are no longer just a voice or a name. You are a presence, and this is where you either elevate or evaporate. that was kind of good. That just rolled off my tongue. Okay. So you are going to walk in like the expert that you are. You are going to guide the conversation. You are going to lead with confidence.
This is not an interview. It is an invitation from you to them. You are inviting them into a curated experience. You're going to talk about your process like a designer talks about. I don't know, a bespoke gown, right? You're going to talk about the emotions your clients feel, the legacy that you're helping them build, not just the files that they are getting, not [00:24:00] just how many files are they getting, right?
This is where you turn curiosity into commitment, okay, we're coming outta that booking meeting. Uh, they are booking you. And the next touch point is the photo shoot. Or the wedding, whichever one it is for you. All right. This is the experience they'll tell their friends about. This is the memory that sticks longer than the gallery, way longer than than the gallery.
So you really need to understand how to go big here. You need to make all of the prep work intentional. You need to. Make the experience immersive, the lighting, the styling, the posing, the direction, all of it should feel like it is screaming at your client that you are not the average photographer. The perceived value is in these details.
It is in how you pose them, how you talk [00:25:00] to them, how they feel comfortable, how they feel safe. Make them feel like they are the main character because they are. If you need help with any of this, you know that this is my bread and butter. My posing method is formulated to do all of this, not only with precision but with impact.
You can watch me do this, live in two different photo shoots, and it will knock your panties off. Okay, I'll put a link to the posing method in the show notes because honestly, if you are failing here, your business fails. That's a hard truth, but clearly you can tell today we are not mincing words. Okay.
Alright, so the next touch point, the image delivery. This is the climax. There is a sex joke there it is. Just hanging. I. I'm gonna leave it, uh, 'cause we are on a roll. Okay. This is the climax. This is the reveal. This is the thing that they have been waiting for. And if you send [00:26:00] that magic via a janky little Dropbox link and like an email that says, here you go.
Here's your photos. You have just tanked your own value. Instead, I want you to create a moment. I want you to use a beautiful gallery. In fact, I want you to use a past gallery. We will talk about that later, but I want you to create a beautiful slideshow. I want you to include music. I want you to write a note.
I want you to turn the delivery into an experience altogether. If you're doing everything that I'm talking about today, this right here, this moment, this is your Super Bowl. These are the Olympics. This is what you've trained for. This is where. You'll make thousands of dollars more on every single photo shoot.
Even if you are a shoot and burn photographer, this is where you can turn your image gallery into even more money. Yes. Even if you are not running IPS. Okay, I'm going to be teaching a [00:27:00] masterclass on this in June because this was the biggest mistake I ever made in my business and I'm so sorry. That is what they call a major cock teas.
I'm so sorry that you have to wait until June for it, but it's going to be incredible. So let it cook for just a little bit. Alright, this final touchpoint, client retention. Okay. This is the cult that we are building. You do not just let them go. You turn them into cult members, you turn them into lifers, the people who repost you every time that you show up.
The ones who hire you again and again, the ones who drop your name in group chats and say like, trust me, she's the one that you need to book. Celebrate them. Send anniversary emails. Offer loyalty perks, refer them to other luxury vendors post their photos when they're not expecting it. Make them feel seen, remembered, and valued.
Because this perceived value, it doesn't end at [00:28:00] delivery. It multiplies every time that they realize, wow, you didn't just take my picture. You gave me a moment that I'll never forget. So there it is. Every touch point, every opportunity, every place that your value is either rising like the star that Paige DeSorbo is, or.
Crashing like Craig Conniver did on watch what Happens Live last night. Okay, now let's take this and let's put it into a practical experience. All right? Let's say that you're five years into business. You are good, but you're no Greg Fink, right? You've got bookings, but you haven't fit. Hit the six figure mark that you know that you're wanting to hit.
You're showing up in your newsletter consistently. You've got touch points of authority that you're building. You're inching towards the reputable business that you're dreaming of having, and [00:29:00] you're in a discovery meeting or you're in a booking meeting, whatever it is that you like to call it. You're in this meeting with a couple and you would love.
To book their wedding. Or maybe you're just, you're a studio photographer, so you're on a call with a great studio client. Anyways, you get my point. You get the vision of what I am trying to paint here for you. So you're sitting in this meeting or you're on this call and the client drops that like business death bomb, and they say, Hey, I think we're gonna go with someone cheaper, or.
Your prices are just out of our budget. Okay. It makes me nervous even to like. Say that right? Because sometimes they don't even have to say it. You just get into a conversation about pricing, and then the next thing that they say is, we'll look this over and we'll get back to you. That response pokes every single insecurity that you [00:30:00] thought you had buried in therapy six years ago, it pokes at that quiet fear that kind of whispers you're not worth it.
Right. And so your first instinct is to defend yourself. you wanna tell them, you know, how long you've been in business, you wanna tell them how expensive your gear is. You wanna tell them your turnaround time, uh, what your client experience looks like. You wanna tell them all of the things in order to defend yourself.
But you're rolling with me now. Okay, and we're controlling your perceived value. So we are not going to do that unless if you are in some kind of dire life or death financial situation where you have to keep the lights on and you have to keep food in your kids' mouths. Like situation. If you are in that situation, then by all means, do whatever you need to do in order to book that wedding or book that client.
But if you are not, do not cave because responses like this make us want to lower our prices or they want to make us make compromises in order to book the work. But baby [00:31:00] girl, we do not. Lower our prices. We do not accommodate deals or demands because bending here is the fastest way to break later.
Bending here means that you saw the red flags in that guy that you were dating, but you stayed anyways. Instead, here's how we respond. We respond calmly and confidently and write this down. Okay? I'm gonna give you this little script, and it is game changing. You are going to say, I'm so sorry that my pricing doesn't align with your budget.
Is the other photographer that you're wanting to hire, is she able to meet all of the goals you have in mind for your images or is there a possibility you might be disappointed after you shoot with them and then we stop talking? You let the silence sit. Even if get, if it gets awkward. You let them answer.
What we're [00:32:00] playing into right here is loss aversion. Okay? That's a cognitive bias that humans have that make us perceive losses much more significantly than we perceive wins that have the same value. All right, so that question alone plants the seed that they are risking disappointment, not just with their experience, but with their memories.
It's not fear-based, it's just reminding them what's actually at stake. And from there, you're in a win-win position. First and foremost, you have shown that your prices are not negotiable, and this potential client now knows that you hold true to what your services are worth. Plus, you're showing a level of emotional intelligence, not by not reacting or not getting offended, plus you're showing a level of psychological intelligence because you've just deployed the beginning of a negotiation that you are going to win, and they don't even know it yet.
[00:33:00] Because even if they don't book you, you've won. And even if they do book you, you've won. If they don't book you, then you already have put the messaging into their heads that there was something better out there and they could have had you if they were willing to invest. If or when they aren't happy with the cheaper option that they chose, they will now hold your business on a pedestal and come to you for their very next session and invest without objection this time.
And when they tell others about their experience with you, they will speak of you in high regards with, uh, like, we wish we would've gone with her referral into your business. This has happened inside of my business so many times that I can't even attest for it. Okay? I have had people interview me for their wedding, [00:34:00] choose to not book me because I was too expensive, and then come after their wedding come back to me so that I could redo their wedding day portraits because they didn't like the photographer that they booked.
I can't even count the number of times that this has happened. I can't even count the number of times, even in my portrait business that somebody has said, we went with so and so for our family photos and I wish we would've gone with you. And then they do and they never question my prices. Okay. Now, if they do book you after this, which you know they will because here's another cock tease for you.
In a future episode, I'm going to teach you my negotiation tactics and my sales script for these kind of discovery calls or meetings. Okay? So then when they do book you, you are going to be the bad bitch that you are. You are going to give them the experience of lifetime. You are going to produce insanely [00:35:00] good images and you are going to blow them away at every turn.
I. All right, so here's where we land. I've just walked you through every single touch point in your business from the very first Instagram scroll to the final gallery delivery from that passive double tap to the moment that your client is in tears watching their images for the first time. And that journey, that is not random.
It is not luck. It is orchestrated, it is planned. It is because you are not just a photographer. You are an experience, a transformation, a moment in someone's life that has become a core memory for them. And when you learn to control your perceived value at every single step of that journey, you don't just raise your prices, you raise your standards, your confidence, and the level of your clientele.
All right. So imagine someone lands on your page, they feel the energy, [00:36:00] they binge your stories, they grab your freebie, they read your emails, they click through your website, and by the time they're sitting across from you and their name is on that contract, they're not wondering if they'll book you.
They're wondering how fast they can lock you in before someone else does. That is the power of controlling perceived value. So now go back into your business with fresh eyes on this. With clarity, with courage, with the audacity to raise the bar for yourself, then refine it, elevate it. Make every single detail say inside of your business, I'm not just worth it, I am it because you are signing off as always, with more gumption than grace.
Bye for now, friends.
Outro: Okay, so that is a wrap on this episode of the Posers Podcast. If you loved it, please subscribe, [00:37:00] rate, and review because honestly, algorithms are needier than all of our ex-boyfriends combined. And ladies, I need all the help I can get. If you've got thoughts, questions, love letters, even hate mail, please send them my way.
I actually read every single one of them. So until next time, stapled, stay messy and don't let the bullshit win. Tits up. Ears open and go build something. Incredible. Bye for now, friends.
