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.
Okay. Hello, hello, hello. My beautiful posers. Welcome back. I feel like the energy is buzzing as I see all of you, all of us. 'cause Me too. Gearing up for our busy fall season. Usually my summers are pretty slow because it's so hot here in Vegas that we don't really shoot very much outside of the [00:01:00] studio.
But yesterday my baby. I call him my baby. He's 13 years old, but he is still and we'll all, you know what I call my 17-year-old, my baby. But my baby Brody, he said to me yesterday, why are you always so busy now? And I thought, yeah, yeah, I feel that too. And then I gave him the answer that I'm giving myself every single day.
And I told him that I'm working really hard to build something remarkable and that. If I want to build something remarkable, then I have to do remarkable things. But doing the remarkable things is sometimes easier said than done in this world of being an entrepreneur, and even more so in this world of being a creative.
Entrepreneur. So, I, you know what I actually like beat myself up. Like every single day that I'm like, doom scrolling on Instagram. I'm like, why can't I just be someone who like, wants to make Canva PDFs and like sell 'em on a stand store? [00:02:00] Or why can't I just do Amazon reviews or like sit behind some like faceless Instagram account?
Okay. Honestly, ask my therapist, why can't all of us. Do that. Uh, my therapist will give you a laundry list of reasons why I can't. But speaking about doing things online, uh, have you seen a very good segue into today's episode? Have you seen this trend on like TikTok and Instagram lately? It's the one where.
Someone turns their head to the side and reads their audience to filth by dropping a hard truth. I've seen this with like a hairdresser turning her head away from the camera and whispering to like an imaginary person being like, you don't actually want to be a platinum blonde because you don't wanna do the work to take care of platinum hair, and your hair will fly off and it'll break and it'll get.
Thin as hell and then you'll be sitting right back here in my chair crying to me that I ruined your hair. And then they turn back to the camera and they're like, who said that? Right. [00:03:00] Okay. Well, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but even if you don't, I think I just explained it pretty well too.
So I'm just gonna keep on like Chuck chugging along. So here we go. Alright, so yesterday. I was leaving the studio and I was sitting in my car and I was voice memoing my team like I always do. And I sent them this audio note about creating some slides for the Mastermind. And of course I'm gonna play this audio note for you here in a second.
So, of, of course, am I, am I gonna miss out on a chance to be fully naked in front of you on the internet? No. Do you even know who I am at this? Point. No, in all honesty, like I promised you raw and unfiltered, so I'm going to give it to you, but hold tight for just a second. I'm gonna play that in just a minute.
But mind you, I was talking to my team about the slides that need to be created for the Mastermind, which is honestly like a pretty simple task. The Mastermind was built a while ago. The copy is there. The notes [00:04:00] have been noted. Alright, but the slides just need to get put together. Alright. Some of these slides are actually about what's holding photographers back.
They are slides that are actually supposed to show members of the Mastermind where their mental blocks are happening yet. Well, you know what? I feel like I'm just gonna play this for you because it explains itself exactly the irony of what is happening here.
Audio Note: Um, I don't know what I am doing honestly. There's so many other things that I could be doing right now and that I probably should be doing right now, and my brain like won't go anywhere else except for here. Like that. I feel like maybe I need to do this for set because. Like, I obviously have like an aesthetic and I want it to look [00:05:00] a certain way, and I'm probably perseverating on this being perfect.
Um, just like, okay, what am I saying? I don't even know. Um, I don't, here's, I'm getting in my own way and I know I'm getting in my own way and I want to be able to delegate this, but I just. For some reason feel like I can't, and like I have all of this other stuff that I need to be doing in the studio, um, because I have family photo launch coming up and I should be spending my time there.
And for some reason I just can't make myself like not do this. And it's not anything other than obviously. Me getting in my own way. So, um, I would love the support. Am I willing to accept the support right now? Probably not, because there's literally something wrong [00:06:00] with me. Um, so I'm gonna finish out this like just week one, and then I feel like we're gonna have a template and we're gonna have like.
Sort of the ability to move forward with the next weeks, like very quickly and efficiently and easy because it's already built. So, um, if I need more support on this, then I will reach out and I'll ask for it. Um. Because, yeah, I don't want you to feel as though you're popping in and I'm just like taking over and like, you're like, Hey, uh, what am I doing here?
Um, I don't, that might not even be how you feel. Who knows? Maybe I'm making stuff up in my head and creating a narrative that doesn't even exist. Who knows? I can't stop talking. Okay. Bye.
Okay, so listening to that is a little bit difficult. The irony that I was talking about before, being that some of those slides are [00:07:00] actually like about what's holding photographers back and like showing the mental blocks and then you hear this audio note literally of me talking about the slides and all of my mental blocks that are happening right there in the audio note.
About them. Okay. So I have so much work going on that needs to be done in so many different arms of my business. The studio is gearing up for its busiest time of the year. I have to find and hire a new va. mastermind starts in August. My kids go back to school in two weeks. Uh, which mind you, I have done nothing to prepare them to go back to school.
I'm launching the posing method in September. I've got shoots on the east coast and in Chicago before the fall schedule pops off and then the fall happens, right? Yet I'm sitting around playing with mastermind slides, slides that could be done by somebody else. Slides that are not urgent.
I mean, they're urgent in the fact that they have to get be done within the next few weeks, but I'm sitting around stuck in the loop of knowing better [00:08:00] and still not changing it, and the truth bomb that I need to hear. Like if I was making that TikTok reel or that Instagram reel for mice. I would be like, bitch, you know better than this.
You know, you're the CEO of this joint, and that slide creation is not your zone of genius. So now you're standing in your own way because perfection isn't a flex, it's a microphone for fear. So figure out what the hell you're so afraid of and move the fuck on. Right.
Okay. But even with knowing all of this, I'm still doing it. I'm perseverating. My brain is locked in, and I can't seem to step away and listen. This is not me being cute. This is not me being like, you know. Cute level of self-deprecation. This is me hearing myself block my own growth in real time. So walked my little happy butt into the studio [00:09:00] today, and I'm handing the slide creation back over to my team, all right, where it should have stayed to begin with.
Okay, so now for today's episode, I think you've probably guessed it, that it is your turn. To be on the other side of this, and I've got some truths that I want to share that might be holding you back and they're gonna sting harder than, I don't know, checking your Stripe account in January. Okay. Harder than.
Then realizing that by being an entrepreneur, like we get to make our own hours. Sure. But like harder than like 2:00 AM panic attacks and midday cry sessions. Alright so let's dive in here is if I was making that real or that TikTok for you on Instagram or. TikTok or wherever. Here's my hard truth number one, and I've got five of them for you.
Okay? So buckle up. All right, here we go. [00:10:00] If you're not actually booked and busy, you're just working a few hours thinking away at tasks that take up way too much of your time because you're too concerned about counting your profit instead of reinvesting it in your business to free up your dime so that you could actually make way more money.
Oh, who said that? That bitch. Right. Okay. I don't think that I actually need to whisper all of these, so I'm gonna say it again. not actually booked and busy. You're just working a few hours tinkering away at tasks that take up way too much of your time because you're too concerned about counting your profit instead of reinvesting it into your business to free up your time so that you could actually make way more money.
Okay. That's a hard truth. Let's be honest. There is a difference between busy work and revenue work, and you are maybe grinding, but you're grinding as a technician. Instead of grinding like a CEO, you are [00:11:00] arranging your tasks into different piles. Okay? Your to-do list is full of things that make you feel as if you're in control and you are safe, like.
I dunno. Updating your pricing guide for the ninth time, or reediting old photos for a gallery that's on your website and you want it to be cohesive or editing every single gallery that you shoot or searching Pinterest for posing inspiration for the next shoot that you have, which is a week away, right?
None of those tasks. Buy back your time and none of them bring in new leads that lead to your business making more money. You're holding onto your profit like it's a scarcity blanket, but your hoarding is costing you time, time that could be spent, outsourcing, automating, or resting so that you could actually show up like the CEO that you are pretending to be.
The goal isn't to stay small and perfectly profitable. The goal is to grow something [00:12:00] sustainable, which means reinvesting in tools, systems, and people who help you build more capacity, more freedom, and more income. All right, here is hard. Truth number two, you are not living in a market that is too saturated.
With photographers, you are blending in to all of the photographers in your area and claiming that saturation is the problem. You're afraid of standing out because you have yet to realize that the only people who would judge you are those who are insecure about themselves. But it's actually. Your own insecurities that are the real handcuffs.
Hmm. Okay. You are actually battling your own fear of visibility. It's not that there are too many photographers in your city, it's that you are terrified of being seen really. Seen because being visible means being vulnerable. And if someone doesn't like what they see, it confirms [00:13:00] every insecurity that you see in yourself.
But guess what? The ones who judge you are never the ones ahead of you. They are not your future clients. They are not your peers who have booked out calendars. They are the people who are behind you wishing that they could. Be you. The market isn't saturated. The market is actually desperate for you. Okay?
Here's hard truth number three. You are not actually afraid to raise your prices because you actually know that you're worth it. But the reason why you haven't done it yet is because you haven't built the authority and the clout to justify the price increase to your audience because you're prioritizing.
Hard truth number one, and you're staying busy as a technician instead of creating authority content for your brand in order to demand those higher prices. Okay? You know that your [00:14:00] images are worth more, but does your brand presence match that price point? You're waiting for people to just kind of like.
Get it right, but clients don't buy based on raw talent alone. They buy based on trust and positioning, and consistency and attention. Attention is your currency. You're fiddling with the wrong dials. Your photos won't justify the price. Hike authority justifies the price hike. Start showing up like someone whose work costs more because the right clients.
Aren't price sensitive whenever you prove your value over and over and over again. Okay? Hard truth number four, you are actually not stuck. You know exactly how to grow your business. You just like to claim that work life balance is the thing that you crave the most when really you're dying to become undeniable in your market.[00:15:00]
You're just too scared to do it. Okay? Let's call it what it is. You are using balance as a shield balance. It sounds noble, right? It sounds maternal right? It sounds like you're choosing family over the hustle. But if we cracked open your dreams and we opened your private journal, I bet we would find something else.
I bet we would find a longing to be known. A longing to be seen. A longing to be undeniable. A longing to be a force. In your industry with the art that you create, you are not lost or stuck at all. Actually, you're stalling because if you go all in and it doesn't work, that would hurt more than failure from a safe distance.
So you hover and you dabble and you claim neutrality when what you really want. Is dominance. [00:16:00] You don't need to choose between being present at home and being powerful in your work. Your ambition is the best thing about you, but you do need to figure out if you're lying to yourself about what you really want.
All right, here's the last one, hard truth number five. You actually have. Every fundamental skill it takes to be a photographer, what you're actually lacking is the expertise that you would gain with proven systems and methods that you could invest in to bring in disrespectful amounts of money into your family.
You just keep thinking that you can figure it out all on your own, and that mindset will keep you on a hamster wheel a decade longer than you need to be. And if you're running at that pace, burnout is more imminent. Than any breakthrough. Okay, let's break this down a little bit. You don't need another free webinar where you take half of the information and then bounce.
Even though you [00:17:00] know you needed the whole entire roadmap. You need to trust those who blazed the trail ahead of you. You're so smart. You already have what it takes behind the camera. What you're missing is a structure. You're missing systems, you're missing pathways. You think figuring it out on your own makes you scrappy and independent, or that you, you think that you can't take money that would go to your family in order to further your business instead.
But what you're actually doing is if you're taking the money from investing in your business to be better and make more along the way, you're taking that from your family. You're taking future financial freedom away from your family. Okay. In this business, this mindset will cost you years, and the solution isn't more effort, it's investing [00:18:00] back into your business.
Okay? This maybe wasn't. The most gentle episode, but sometimes the kindest thing that I can do is keep my promise to you and to say the quiet parts out loud to say the thing that nobody else is willing to say to you. And I'm not immune to any of this. Nobody is immune to any of this. I'm sharing this with you, not because I have it all figured out.
But because clearly I don't, you just heard that audio clip. Okay. But because I want you to walk beside the people who are willing to get honest about where they're playing small and then fix it. I want you to be done using excuses that. Feel comfortable, but cost you everything that you say that you want.
So let this be your sign. Let this be the moment [00:19:00] that you finally stop telling yourself that you're stuck, that you're burnt out, that you're just, I don't know, not ready yet, because you are. And you always have been. Okay. So take all of this and go build something incredible. Now, if you want more episodes like this, make sure that you're on my newsletter list where clearly I don't hold anything back.
And um, on that list, then it will ensure that you never miss. A future episode, and if you're ready to go deeper with me, the wait list for the next round of my mastermind is already growing, and you can find the link to that wait list in the show notes or in the newsletter email, If you are sick of feeling that mid shoot panic and feeling awkward and creating stiff images on your photo shoots, then you need to hop into the posing method where I teach you how to control hits of dopamine and oxytocin in your client's brain, [00:20:00] and I teach you how to control your entire.
Photo shoot with ease, and I teach you how to never go blank on your next pose. And I teach you how to create effortless images that are filled with genuine emotion every single time. And the link for that is also in your show notes and it's also in the newsletter email that got sent out to you. So let's wrap this episode up.
Until next time, bye for now. Posers.
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, stapled, stay messy and don't let the bullshit win. Tits up. Ears open and go build something. Incredible. Bye for now, friends.
