Intro: [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, hello, hello, my beautiful posers. Welcome back to the Posers Podcast. It has been a week filled with my butt in my office chair, building out some things inside of the studio, so I have. Not been shooting very much by design. I blocked out a couple of weeks knowing that I was going to want [00:01:00] to spend some time building, but I am back at it this weekend with five.
Yes, five. Shoots inside of the studio. I'm gonna have to literally dust off my camera. But yeah, we're doing five shoots over the course of Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is also my second wedding anniversary of being married to husband 2.0, but he is going to have to take a backseat because the studio is.
Booked and busy. But that's okay because, him and I are popping off to Cabo next weekend to have a long extended weekend away to celebrate just the two of us. You know what? Enough. About me and the huy because it is not very on brand for me to be talking about men on this podcast. 'cause you know what?
We are a girls only club. Okay? Anyways, today we are doing the damn [00:02:00] thing. If you are driving and listening. Listening to this, obviously keep listening. I love you. Keep driving two hands on the wheel. I want you to be very safe, but just note that you are probably going to want to come back to this episode and listen to it again while you are sitting at your desk or sitting at your table.
Sitting somewhere where you can have a notebook out because notes need to be taken. We are dropping some bombs in this episode, so listen, last week we went full Ghostbusters mode and we had dissected the rookie mistake that I made in sending a. Thesis of a response to a potential client who still hasn't responded by the way.
I told you I would keep you up to date as to whether or not she was booking. But we should probably just be like Tutu Lou Rach. I am so sorry because I did her dirty like that last week, but. Yes, we [00:03:00] dissected the silence that can sometimes come after we respond to the ever present question. Can you send me your pricing?
That email that seemingly all of our potential clients seem to lead with? And honestly, like whatever happened to a little bit of. Flirting before we get down to business. Like what happened to you? Buying me a drink before asking how much I cost. Okay. Oh my God. And why is that scene from Pretty Woman now In my head you know the scene I'm talking about whenever she's like.
Sitting on the bench waiting for the bus outside of the Beverly Wilshire and her like thigh high boots and her tiny dress are basically like all the way up to her throat. And you know what, this ties really nicely into what I'm about to be talking about because in that moment she had basically just gotten like dumped for the night.
But you know what happens after that? Edward walks up behind her and. I love it [00:04:00] 'cause they cut to the scene of the doorman like gawking at the fact that he is walking back up behind Vivian and he says, did you really say a hundred dollars per hour? And Vivian says something, I mean, she does not stutter, she does not backpedal.
She does not discount anything She. Holds to her price and she matches his energy. And even though she may have felt like before she was kind of getting dumped for the night, she leans in and she fucking closes that deal. Okay. God, I love that movie. Anyway, so if people, if our potential clients are gonna come into our inboxes, ready to play hardball, look at fit, look at.
The look at the little segues, the little innuendo back. And that's exactly what Stuckey would've said if he was gonna play hardball. Yeah. If these potential clients are gonna come into our inboxes, just asking right off the bat how much we charge, then you know [00:05:00] what? We are gonna match them with Vivian energy.
So today we are breaking down exactly how to shift the power dynamic and how to stop feeling like you're chasing clients. And start creating conversations that keep you in control because we are not begging to be booked. Okay? We are building value. So last week we talked about what really causes ghosting.
After that first inquiry lands into our inbox and we looked at how like long. Overly detailed thesis type emails can overwhelm a potential client and actually shut down the conversation before it begins, and we broke down how Keeping your response short and matching their energy and asking a couple of really simple clarifying questions can keep the dialogue open and shift the dynamic from transactional.
To personal. So we looked at how getting a client to [00:06:00] simply respond to anything that we're asking creates a micro commitment. That small action really builds this sense of connection to your brand and starts to convert before they ever even know their pricing. Okay. Or, I'm sorry, before they ever even know.
Your pricing, which is the question that they are always seeming to be asking us. So this week we are flipping the script, saying, flipping the script. That makes me sound so old. How else can I say that? We are turning the tables, we are changing the narrative. Flipping the script just reminds me of like bad commercials from like 15 years ago.
Okay, so we're taking it. Get back on track, Jody. We're taking it a step. Further, and we're looking at how to use that first reply to build trust and to normalize our high ticket offers and to take back control of the conversation. Because [00:07:00] this week I have a much better example of how I followed my. Own rules of engagement and I had a cute little gorgeous, pretty little back and forth email exchange with a potential client who is now on my books for mid-September, and it's the weirdest thing with psychology and selling.
It's like if you say the right. Thing, you land the deal and if you say the wrong thing, you are in like conversion jail for bad behavior. And that feels like a ton of pressure. So today I'm breaking down that email exchange and I'm not just breaking down what I see. Said, but why it worked also, and I'm even sharing a DM that I got from another photographer.
Shout out to Elisa Rochelle, who literally used what we talked about last week and had her own win. So yeah. Like I told you, get your notebooks out. Buckle up bitches, because after this episode, you are going to [00:08:00] feel a little unshakeable in that cute little inbox of yours, like literally a drop a booking link and get her done already kind of energy because we.
Have got businesses to build. Okay, so let's start with that little love note that dropped into my dms from Elisa. She said, well, first of all, her first line to me was, first off, I love the vibe of your podcast. I can relate with saying it exactly like it is. And did you guys think that I was going to leave out that little Diddy where she said that she's loving this podcast?
Um, excuse me. No, I sure wouldn't. This is women Supporting Women right here in the now, and we already learned how to brag better a few weeks ago. So if. Course I am keeping that little line in here, but Elisa went on to say, she says, I just listened to your most recent [00:09:00] podcast today on the way to a photo shoot about ghosting since raising my price.
Says, I'm getting ghosted constantly. It's depressing. But when I got home, I checked my email and I had a new inquiry and I took your approach this time and I held back on sending the investment guide right away, and I got a response within the hour. And in that response that this potential client said to Elisa, they said.
Whenever you get a chance, please send your investment guides so we know how much we need to budget for. Okay? First of all, Elisa, hell fucking yes. Second of all, this is exactly how you take the power back and control the flow of the email so that the client is no longer leading the exchange. You are.
We're looking to create connection. Pave that neural pathway and start stacking up those micro commitments and getting them used to being inside of our business. Elisa did not [00:10:00] overwhelm her. She didn't hand her a thesis statement full of mental overload and. Decision fatigue. She built a bridge and bridges lead to bookings.
And what I want to point out too is that this client did not respond to her saying, please send your investment guide. She said, please send your investment guide so we know how much we need to budget for, which is. Already more of a commitment, already taking a step into the right direction because of how Elisa handled that situation.
So bravo. Bravo. Alright, here we go. So let's talk about my email exchange this week and what to do after that first email exchange. If you're not going into booking a discovery call. We already discussed all of that like discovery call jazz last week, so pop back into that episode. If you missed it and you wanted to know, [00:11:00] my lukewarm takes over there on discovery Call Mania.
Alright, so here's the email that I got on Monday. This client's name is Carol and she said, hi. Do you do senior graduation photo shoots? I have a senior graduating in 2026. Please let me know. Now, we already know from last week that what we're not doing is sending over the pricing guide our studio process, options for client wardrobe, and the manifest.
Of all of our burgeoning businesses, right? No, we are locking in. We are getting air tight, so none of this conversation falls through the cracks. Our tits are up, our focus is lasered in, and we are matching that energy. And here's what I said back to her. I said, hi, Carol. I have a graduating senior in 2026.
Two. Yes, I do senior photos and I love them. Is this your first baby to graduate? And guess what, [00:12:00] Carol replied moments later, because like I said last week, show me a mom who doesn't want to talk about their babies, and I will show you no one understanding these nuances of human behavior is. Key to persuasion and influence.
It's not just as simple as me relating to her as a mom. It's understanding how the brain works and what will elicit a response and what will get a closed door in your face. So she responded moments later saying, hi, Jodi. This is my first born daughter, so it's my first time doing this. LOL. Do you have dates and package pricing?
Now notice the subtle shift. We moved from her just asking if this was something that I do into her asking, not just for pricing. Also a date. And when a client asks for a date, it's a very good sign that you have added a little bit of grease to those wheels in their head. Because asking for pricing is one [00:13:00] thing.
Asking for a date is like getting to second base. Because she's thinking another step ahead. So that's a key indicator that I can throw down a bit more information, and she's ready to dive into this transaction a little bit further without getting spooked. And my email back to her continued to match the vibe of our commitment level.
Think of it like. Whenever you're first starting to text someone new, someone that you're dating, you are keeping it light and fun. And if they ask a question that's a little bit deeper than all of the light and fun that you had been giving, it's not as though you're gonna go full swing into your childhood trauma, right?
If they're asking something a little bit deeper, you're. Still just giving them the glossy version of you. It's the same idea here. So I gave her clear choices with easy to answer questions still. So I asked does her daughter want a studio session or somewhere outdoors? No [00:14:00] decision fatigue at all. I simply hyperlinked a studio session and I hyperlinked an outdoor location with two quick clicks.
She can see the difference in the two, and it is a very easy decision for her and her daughter to make. I also mentioned the fact that her daughter could have as many wardrobe changes as she wanted because I know that that's a question that a high school senior is. Always going to ask. They want to have wardrobe changes, so I am jumping in and answering that question before they even have to tie, have to take the time to answer it for me, and I know it's something that they want to know.
So I said she can have as many wardrobe changes as she wanted. But most seniors do two to three options while adding in their cap and gown and their vitamins jacket. Now, little sidebar, you might ask me here why I might allow as many outfit changes as they want, which is like, I get it. We're going into a jaunt into a little bit of a different direction.
But I wanna answer this because I'm assuming that that's a question that popped up into your [00:15:00] head. So. Mainly it's because I know that the more outfits they want, the more money I'm going to make because they will always purchase images from each outfit set. And does that make the shoot longer? Yeah.
Does it make me work a little bit more? Sure. Do I care? Absolutely. Fucking not because I'm here to make money. Okay. Alright. We went on that little tangent. Let's get back to it. Okay. So I had mentioned to her that um, she could have as many wardrobe changes as she can, and then I framed the pricing with the magic.
You guys, this is so powerful. It is price it anchoring. I made a joke that her session would be way less. Than the college tuition that we're about to face. And I did this on purpose, not to just be relatable, not to just be funny. Not to just be like, Hmm, poppy little Jody inside of an email. I did this on purpose because.
Chris Voss explains in one [00:16:00] of my absolute favorite books ever, it's a book that's called, never Split the Difference, and he discusses the fact that the brain clings to the first number that it hears. If you drop something massive, like college tuition into the conversation before you talk about your pricing, you are anchoring the brain to that big.
Terrifying figure. I don't even have to say, oh, $50,000 of college tuition. No, I don't have to define it like that. I can simply say college tuition and they are gonna anchor into that. Space of 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, a hundred thousand, and it seems as though it's just this cute little joke that I dropped in, right?
But I'm price anchoring. I am anchoring their brain into that space so that whenever I follow it up with something like a $3,000 photo [00:17:00] package, that $3,000. Suddenly feels manageable. Hell, it even feels reasonable, right? It is smart psychology because if I led with, Hey, your total might be $3,000 without any frame or reference.
She is gonna flinch. She's maybe even going to run. And then there we are. We'd be right back on the ghost hunt. Okay? But whenever I say, oh yeah, it's way less than what we're about to spend on college. LOL ha ha ha. She laughs. And her brain softens around that number, and that's called anchoring, and it works like a charm.
Okay? Right after that, I told her that the session fee is only $497, and then most of my clients choose 20 to 30 images for their album, which costs. Around two to $3,000, but she doesn't have to do an album if she doesn't want to. [00:18:00] Okay. No sticker shock, no hard sell. Just this is what people usually do.
This is also a phenomenon that I'm using calling social herding, that you have heard me talk about because I'm looping in what all of. My other herds of clients do, and I make this a normal number. And then I, wrapped this whole email up and I said, would you like to grab a date in mid-September as the temperature starts to drop a little bit?
Now, listen to this next part. Because this is where we all panic a little bit. She didn't respond right away. Okay. And I expected that because I just gave her enough information to mull it over for a bit. And information that she needed to talk to her daughter and her spouse about, and a couple galleries to look out.
And a couple of decisions to make. So I simply set a reminder to follow up in a couple days, and I went about my [00:19:00] week. That's a spot right there where most photographers panic and we sit. And we spin and we spiral and we think like, oh my God, they haven't responded yet. Oh my God, what do I do? Oh my God, do I send an email?
Oh my God, do I not send an email? Do I play it cool? Do I act like this is no big deal? Do I never respond? Do I let her get back to me? When you take a minute to understand the cadence and the rhythm and the flow to the exchange that you are in with a client, it is a whole lot easier to simply know.
Hey, I just gave them a lot of information. I'm gonna take a couple steps back. So I set that reminder. I went about my week. I followed up two days later, and I pulled out a tactic that almost always steals the deal for me. I sent an email that had my calendar listed out from mid to late September with the dates that I'm not available, marked in red.
And the fewer [00:20:00] number of dates that I am available marked in green. It was an immediate visual indication of how valuable my time is and how difficult it is to get into my calendar. Then each date had listed next to it the reason why I wasn't available that day. So let's talk about what that final follow-up email really did.
Because it wasn't just a, you know, quote unquote checking in email, it was laced with strategy. So first of all, the hook of the email, if you think that hooks are only used for your reels on social media or your captions, uh, I want you to reassess that because the very first line of your email. Is also a hook and it should reel your client in.
Okay, so the first line [00:21:00] of my email immediately tapped into urgency and scarcity, and I open it up with saying, hi Carol. A quick check-in before I set my calendar for the fall, and then I won't be able to get your daughter scheduled. That line is doing more than reminding her. Of dates. It's doing more than reminding her that she hasn't sent me a response.
It is triggering something called the loss aversion bias. This is a sneaky little psychological powerhouse move when you understand it because this bias teaches us that people place more value on something they think they might miss out on rather than something they know they can easily have. And I doubled down on it in my next line, whenever I added these images are going to be cherished, so I don't want you to miss out.
Now, pause here and hear me whenever I say this. I am not saying these photos are your daughter are going to be so pretty. [00:22:00] I am saying you're going to regret not having them. These are two totally different emotional paths. This one taps into the fear of future loss, which is one of the strongest motivators.
In human behavior. It's why anytime you see marketing and advertising that says limited time offer or flash sales, that only lasts a certain amount of time. It is why that kind of marketing works and it's a simple, I don't want you to miss out. That can close a sale way faster than you. Ever trying to woo them with showing them how pretty your images are?
Okay, so after hitting the loss aversion tactic, I slid straight into that very clear color coded list of my calendar dates that were marked with red and green. Of course I am choosing red [00:23:00] because red is a powerful color. So whenever Carol sees all of those dates in red, her brain doesn't just read, booked, her brain subconsciously registered, it's too late.
Opportunity is vanishing. You've waited too long. She is in demand. Again, as humans, we avoid loss more than we chase gains. So the more red she sees. The more she feels like, oh my God, my options are disappearing. I marked the dates available in green and there was only three of them, and I bolded the one and the only one that was on a weekend.
So I am visually directing her to the exact decision that I want her to make because her eyes can't help but go Red, red, red, red, red. Green. Oh that one. That's visual anchoring and choice [00:24:00] architecture. I'm reducing the number of decisions by designing the decision that I want her to make. I'm not saying book now.
I'm like, honey, you better take me an now or lose me forever. Right, and even more, I sprinkled in details that show that my time is valuable, not just vaguely booked, but specifically booked because right next to the date I listed why it was. That I was not able to take a shoot that day, like days that I'm recording the podcast days that I'm teaching, the mastermind days that I am traveling to the East coast and then shooting on the East coast for three days after and then traveling back home.
And then the day that I'm traveling over to shoot in Texas and then whenever I'm traveling back. So I'm not just booked. I'm in demand, and that's authority signaling. She's not [00:25:00] thinking, can I book her? She's thinking, oh my God, can I still book her? Now, let's zoom in on that one Saturday that was available.
I didn't just say, oh, hey, this is open. I said September 13th, it's open and it's a Saturday, and I put it in bold with exclamation points. I drew in a little bit of emotional emphasis. Okay. So then in my last line, I said, would you like my assistant to send the link to snag that coveted Saturday spot?
And even in that sentence, let's dissect it really quick. I made sure to mention my assistant, which tells my client my potential client. I'm not doing everything myself here. I am not a fair weather photographer. I am not a mom with a hobby, with a camera in her hand. I am running a legit [00:26:00] business, God dammit.
I used the word snag, right? It's a very casual, very easy action step, but it also emphasizes that we need to get it done quickly because that date is a hot little number that will go fast. And I mentioned the word coveted, which obviously taps into scarcity and urgency and fomo, literally all packed up into one word.
And did she end up booking that coveted spot? She sure should. Did. I mean, how could she not after I just man handled her like that. Wait, you know what? We need to change the word manhandled to woman handled. Okay. Because I just woman handled her like that. Okay, let's wrap this up. Let me just summarize because we really just hit this one out of the ballpark with this podcast.
I. Told you, I warned you, we are going over [00:27:00] so much you are going to want to be sitting down for this. Okay. So we are using mirroring, we are matching the tone of our client's emails. We're creating micro-commitments first, like getting them to reply to something small because whenever we get them to reply to something small than they are more likely to reply again, just like I did with Carol in talking about our kids graduating.
Right. All right. We're reducing decision fatigue by matching their energy and giving clear short answers and asking clear, easy questions. price anchoring so that we reduce. Sticker shock. All right.
We're using social hurting to normalize high ticket items so that they don't ghost us at the site of our pricing, and we throw down the urgency and the scarcity gauntlet to close the deal, and we do all of that. Without ever sounding salesy or slimy. [00:28:00] Okay. Now, before you think that I am chasing these random inquiries like this all week, let me be clear.
These are one-off email situations that are just for filler shoots. They keep my slower months profitable, but my busy seasons are booked at least six months in advance, and that system is. Entirely different to what I'm talking about here. That system is automated, it is intentional, and it drives the volume into my business.
And this system is what I teach inside of my mastermind, which isn't just sold out. It is now oversold at this point. So if you want in on the next round of that. You're going to need to get on the wait list now, and the link to that wait list is in the show notes, and that link is also in your inbox if you are on my mailing list.
And if you're not on my mailing list, honestly, like whatcha doing with your life.[00:29:00]
Alright, my beautiful posers, if you remember nothing else from today. Remember this, don't send an email, start a conversation and don't hope for a yes. Design their decisions for them because we are not out there just trying to only get booked. We are out there and we are building demand, so stay strategic and honestly, stay a little saucy too.
I'll be back next week for the next episode. Bye for now, friends.
Outro: Okay, so that is a wrap on this episode of the Posers Podcast. If you loved it, please subscribe, 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, [00:30:00] stapled, stay messy and don't let the bullshit win. Tits up. Ears open and go build something. Incredible. Bye for now, friends.
