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.
Episode Intro: Well, hello, hello, hello, and welcome back my beautiful posers. I am so excited to have you here today because I get to announce that on today's episode, I am joined by the absolute powerhouse that is Brittany. Elise, you know her as the woman behind one of the most successful portrait studios in the country, and also the founder of her [00:01:00] 10 week Mastermind leveraging to Luxury.
And in this episode, we are pulling back the curtain on what it really took for her to get there. I'm telling you, it did not start. With a seven figure spreadsheet. It started with a literal shoebox of a studio and Britney's sheer determination to build something incredible. This is a huge episode.
We're chopping it down the middle. We are going over part one today. Okay. Part one is wildly inspiring. We are diving into the idea that your mindset is really the only thing standing between you and success, and the real reason that you might be stuck in the, you know, I just want the digitals. Rat race with your clients.
we're talking about how, you can really make IPS feel so deeply personal and never salesy. And, even talking about the one brick that Brittany laid [00:02:00] inside of her business that really and truly changed everything we are getting so real about. Digital burnout and why McDonald's wages inside of your business are not cute, and how competing with yourself is really the only competition that matters.
You are going to feel more ready than ever to raise the bar after listening to this episode. So let's dive in.
Episode 25
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Jodi Anne Hendricks: Well, hello, miss Brittany Elise, how are you? Wait, do you go by a full Brittany Elise or do people just call you Britt? Do they call you Brittany? What do they call you? Brittany? Yeah,
Brittany Elise: just
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Brittany full. You don't ever, because every time I talk to you, Brittany,
Brittany Elise: I call you Brittany. Oh, okay. So Brit, that's a funny thing.
So I, my whole family calls me Brit. I'm close to call me Britt. I do not like being called Brit if we're not. Oh, my so good. We like topped this off [00:03:00] right here. Yeah. I wouldn't called you
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Brit.
Brittany Elise: Whole
Jodi Anne Hendricks: entire podcast. Well, it doesn't, it doesn't,
Brittany Elise: like, I don't really say anything. But like sometimes when people first start working with me, they'll call me Brit, like my other employees that have been with me for four or five years.
And so I'm always just like, like, you know, like, but I'm usually like, I just let it go. sometimes Zach will call me on my entire name and I'm like. What did I do?
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Why? Yeah. Like if literally, if Brian calls me by my name, I'm like, get my government name out of your mouth. Yeah. Like, that is for my passport.
And my passport only. Like, stay away from that. Even if he calls me Jody, I'm like, excuse you. Like, I'm sorry, what was that? Sorry. I'm a I'm a honey, I'm a babe, I'm a sweetheart. I'm a whatever. Exactly. But like a Jody is not it. Yeah. No, but when he's like, I love it. Like, well, thank you for being here on the Posters podcast.
I feel like we, me and you have been talking about doing this for a long time, but I feel like [00:04:00] the people, the people of the posers have also been asking for a little poser by Brittany Elise mashup. So I feel like we're giving, we're giving the people what they want. I love
Brittany Elise: it. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to be on here with you and all the I, all the fun things we're gonna talk about.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: I love it too. And we sort of volleyed around several ideas of like what it was that we were actually gonna talk about. And we've come like full circle from whenever we were first talking, it was like we were gonna talk motherhood, we were gonna talk about the shame that other mothers can give and how much it kind of impacts like the growth of your business and all of that.
And we've come full circle and we're gonna talk like straight business today.
Brittany Elise: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I'm so excited.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: But I feel like, okay, so to give everybody a little bit of a backstory, I met you, I mean we met via the inner webs, right? Yeah. Actually Brittany, I was gonna say [00:05:00] Brit, actually, Brittany, the very first time that I came into contact with with you is on the homepage of Redtree albums, right?
Like there's a video there of you that you did like a collab with Redtree saying, had a quadruple your income with album sales or like something along those lines. And I watched it one time a long time ago, whenever I was first starting the studio and I was like, oh my God, I like this girl. This is so great.
And then y like two years later or so after that, 'cause I never like reached out, I just sort of like. I dunno, fangirled over you, but then you reached out because you were building your studio and you asked me what kind of flooring I had here in the studio. Yes. Mm-hmm. And so then we started to talk over dms and then we started to talk about me coming and speaking at your conference because you're the founder of Focus and Flourish.
And that's how we actually like connected and started to build this friendship. So really it hasn't been all that long that we've known each other. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I love it. I'm [00:06:00] kind of, I'm kind of obsessed with our little blossoming friendship. I know. But because of that, because we don't really know each other, like through and through as like besties would, I feel like I have to start off the podcast by asking a few, like really hard hitting really, really important questions that the audience needs to know.
Okay. Okay.
Brittany Elise: Are these, were these in the notes beforehand? Because I'm getting a lost No, these
Jodi Anne Hendricks: are not in your, these are not in your notes. You did not, you have no time to prep for this because that's how, that's how I work. Okay. Question number one. These are literally coming off the top of my head. I do not have notes for this either, so don't feel like you needed to prep question number one.
Okay. Zach or Dylan Efron, which one's your favorite?
Oh, she stutters. Oh, she's,
Brittany Elise: I be totally honest. I don't really know who they're,
Jodi Anne Hendricks: okay. You know what, I'm, I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to stop
Brittany Elise: recording. Can I Google that? I like, I just have never been [00:07:00] that girl that like, pays attention to really attractive men. I just, I don't know.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Okay. This is, this is so nice for your husband because I do the exact opposite.
I literally come home with like, something on my screen being like excuse me. Look at what Dylan's doing on the internet today. I heard you like,
Brittany Elise: talk
Jodi Anne Hendricks: about them,
Brittany Elise: but I, I only know who Zach Efron is. Like, I don't, I don't know. I'm assuming they're brothers, but they are
Jodi Anne Hendricks: brothers and we met Dylan in his, I'm gonna Google it while you're talking.
In his full amazing glory. We met Dylan on the set of Traitors, which is my absolute favorite show, which is, it was gonna be my next question for you is what's the trashiest form of reality TV that you watch? If you say you don't watch reality tv, I'm literally, I'm gonna have to stop this podcast.
Brittany Elise: I'm officially fired.
No, I'm okay. So I, I'm gonna go with Dylan Efron. I just think he, like, okay. Again, I don't follow him. I have no idea. Just a girl [00:08:00] looking at a photo, he just feels a little more down to earth.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Brittany, have you not seen me posting their golf video on my Instagram stories?
Brittany Elise: No, I'm sorry.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Oh my God. I'm gonna send it to you personally and literally, like when this airs on the Posers podcast, I'm gonna have to give a follow up in my stories that like you have done your due diligence, you have done your homework, you now understand the assignment, and you know exactly which Efron brother is your favorite.
Brittany Elise: Okay. I'm assuming Dylan
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Efron was not the right answer. No, Dylan is the right answer. Dylan is the right answer. I'm obsessed with Dylan because of the traitors, because we saw his cute little personality and he's so sweet and he's so nice. He is all of the things and I absolutely adore him. I actually, I'm the opposite.
I don't really know Zach all that much. Like I was never like a younger tween who was like ogling over Zach. So. But he's a little too,
Brittany Elise: he's a little [00:09:00] too pretty for me too. Is that Zach? Yeah. And I, I,
Jodi Anne Hendricks: I get the vibe that Zach would be shorter and I'm a tall girl, so like, I need to make sure that height is Yep.
I talk about it as if I'm literally gonna be standing next to Dylan Efron and I'm like, can I wear heels with Dylan or can I not? I cannot. These, okay. Whats the trash? These question in life though? Reality TV that you watch. What reality TV do I watch? Trash. Trash. What was that? What's the trashiest show on reality TV that you watch?
Brittany Elise: I, when, when I was editing my photos, which I haven't edited for a few years, I used to binge Real Housewives.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: I
Brittany Elise: loved Real Housewives. Yeah. Which, which city? I love the sophistication of New York, but I also love. Just the vibes of the oc. Oh, okay.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Did you know that Gretchen Rossi just came back [00:10:00] to the oc?
No, she's, she's
Brittany Elise: beautiful.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Okay.
Brittany Elise: She's
Jodi Anne Hendricks: like such a, she's beautiful, but the OC is a train wreck and I'm like, it's in season right now, and I'm actually like not watching it because I just, I can't get on board with OC anymore. Yeah, yeah. But okay. Well, with you saying the Real Housewives of New York is your favorite, you get a full pass and you have passed every single test that you needed to pass in order to be a opposer.
So, we can get started on actually giving the people what they want to hear from us. Love it. Because it's not this kind of like trash conversation that they're expecting. Brittany Elise, you are literally the queen of all queens. Like what you have built. No, for real. Don't you giggle over there.
What you have built out of your studio is nothing short of goddamn amazingness. Seriously. I walked into your studio in Florida and. And you can see my studio back here behind [00:11:00] me that like it's 18 times the size of what I have here in Vegas. You are running probably 18 times the amount of revenue that I am running here in Vegas.
And honestly, like everything that you've built with your mastermind and the studio and the team that you have built, it's seriously absolutely incredible. And you should be like throwing yourself a party every single day.
Brittany Elise: Oh, thank you.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Yeah,
Brittany Elise: we, I will say those who have followed me for a while, my previous studio that I was in for four or five years was a literal shoebox.
Like it was, I didn't even have a desk A little better. Yeah. It was a literal shoebox. And so I remember when I left my coaching group at the time, I, I shared a video with them and I walked them through my studio and I opened drawers and I, I showed them closets. I showed them the shower. There was a shower in my old studio that was packed [00:12:00] to the brim.
And I did this because I wanted people to understand the amount of sacrifice that I had made in that studio year over year, how I had literally given my desk. To my employees. I, I used to eat and work at the small countertop next to the fridge. You're like, I used
Jodi Anne Hendricks: to eat and work inside the shower. Yes.
Yeah. Like
Brittany Elise: I, it was like, and even my clients like, you know, saw that they, they, they, you know, I remember you were like talking about clients clapping you up mm-hmm. At the conference, and I have so many clients who saw how much sacrifice we made as a team. My employees ate lunch in their car. Okay. Like, because I didn't have a designated break room, you know, I didn't even, I did not even have a desk.
And so when we come over here, this is just like. We feel like we live [00:13:00] like in a palace now and it's just, but we, there was year over year of sacrificing to be able to save, to be able to have this and so it was a lot of work. But, but yeah, now we feel, yeah, now we feel like very just like spoiled and just like really honestly blessed to like have the spaces and I'm in an office that's mine.
It has a door.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: So I love Your office is stunning. I have seen it in person and even on the video, like your wallpaper, it's gorgeous. But what I actually love about this the most, because what people don't know is that we were chatting just a little bit like before we hit record and we were talking about the idea of like being an educator.
And you know, still maintaining that relatability. And I said to you before we started, I was like, Brittany, like you are running a seven figure business. Like your relatability is maybe a little bit hard for people to grasp because you've been so successful because you've built [00:14:00] so much. And so to hear this story of like how it started out and that you've literally brick by brick built this thing and that it has taken years and that it has taken so much time and so much effort and so much sacrifice, that that's the part that makes it so relatable.
Like it's not as though. You just, you know, started a little photography business and then all of a sudden like, oh boom, let me buy a building and let me like make it gorgeous and let me have this whole entire like client experience happening. No, like it's been years and years and years, literally brick by brick.
And this isn't on your list of questions, but like, if there was one brick that you laid that you knew was like the start of the foundation of everything that you built, like was that buying the building, was that like hiring the team that you hired? Was it your first hire, the first time that you outsource something?
Like what's the one brick that [00:15:00] you're like, I'm gonna put this in place and I'm gonna be able to flourish off of this?
Brittany Elise: Yeah. I would say the most important brick I have laid and I've continually laid is investing in myself, investing in business coaches, investing in. People that are experts in their area to come in and give me advice and really working towards, continually being better and always competing with myself.
And that is in the form of that investing in myself and, and like growing to be the next best version. And I think that. I do think that there's people who are okay reaching a destination and being happy there, and I think that's totally fine, but that's not in my DNA, you know, I reflect a lot on like my upbringing and my parents also owning their own business.
And like I was taught to constantly evolve and constantly [00:16:00] become the next best version of yourself. And that means investing in the right people to help you get there. Yes, my team has helped me, but I hired somebody to help me learn how to build a team, you know, so, um, in your, in your education and committing to doing it.
I think there's a ton of people who sign up for courses. There's a ton of people who go to masterminds. Yeah. And don't actually show up and don't actually do the work. No, I agree. So, committing to yourself when you do that.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: I love that. I actually love, 'cause I feel like we hear that a lot. We hear like, you know, making sure that you're investing in people who have like blazed that trail ahead of you.
Making sure that you're learning from people who have done it. And done it better than you could ever do it if you were trying to do it on your own. But that piece that you just said of like, really competing with nobody else except for yourself. Mm-hmm. Like, I feel like that's where me and you are so aligned, because I don't have that governor on me either.
That [00:17:00] like, I don't know that I'll ever get to a place where I feel like, okay, I've completed the project. Like, okay, I'm done with this and I can just stop here because I feel comfortable. Mm-hmm. So I just, I love that. I love that. You said competing with yourself. What do you think like I. Mindset wise, like what's the biggest block that photographers face whenever they're trying to transition into like what you're doing most specifically?
Like what we planned on talking about today was in-person sales and what that looks like inside of your studio and all of that. But what's the biggest mindset block that, before we ever even talk about in-person sales, what's that block that photographers have to get over in order to do it?
Brittany Elise: Yeah. I 100% believe the block is themselves.
mountain is you. Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. You have to to grow, and I don't just mean in person sales, I mean in general in your business, you have to be [00:18:00] willing to see. Your weaknesses and you have to be willing to do the work that sometimes is kind of ugly to get to the other side.
And so when I, especially in my coaching, when I see people who are not as successful or maybe don't even get off the launchpad, it's usually them. It's usually them. Yeah. And I get to know my students on a very deep level. And I've been doing this now for five years, so I've learned a lot and I've recognized patterns in certain people.
And so that's how I can say themselves because I can pinpoint the people who have had those blocks. And the most common of those blocks is themselves.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Interesting. Not money, you don't think it's like a money mindset kind of block. It's like a just. Like, am I worth this? Am I like able to do [00:19:00] this? Can I build this for myself?
Sort of stuff.
Brittany Elise: Yeah. And I do think a lot of like the money mindset block comes back to you. Yeah. It comes back to your personal beliefs around money. It comes back to your personal beliefs around your value and your work. That's, that is internal work that you have to do. Sure, you can go take all the programs in the world, but none of them are going to help you if you are not willing to recognize where you have hangup in believing in yourself, you know, where you have hangup in talking about money or you know, or even like just actually taking action on what you learn.
Yeah, that all comes back to you. And so you can take the best courses, you can have the best coaches, but if you don't have the willingness to work on yourself, you'll never, you'll, you'll never get past it. And so, and I, I know my students and sometimes like I get super emotional when I [00:20:00] see their wins because I know how hard some of these women have worked on themselves to, like, when I see that they get, you know, uh, their, their first.
10 k sale or whatever, it doesn't even have to be 10,000 their first break. Right? Their first like, oh my God, I can't believe this happened to me. I am like, I'm not cheering for the sale. I'm cheering for the internal victory that I knew that they went through to get that. And so, that, that mindset block is so important.
And I think that a lot of people are just not willing to do the work because it's not pretty and it, it's hard and you have to peel back layers of pieces of you that, you know, in some ways are somewhat traumatic, you know? And so, yeah. Yeah, by and far
Jodi Anne Hendricks: the integrated, the personal therapy piece is almost just as important as other like business pieces whenever you're like building something like this.
So I totally get it. Yeah. Was there, [00:21:00] was there ever a time in your business that you weren't running IPS.
Brittany Elise: Yes. So when I first started so I, I opened in 2014 and I was digital only. I was kind of running the mi, the mini session model because I was still a nurse. By 2015 I, I quit. I had Maverick and, uh, my first child just gave me that like.
F it. Like, if I'm gonna be on this planet, I'm gonna teach my kids how to follow their dreams. And I just finally had that push to believe in myself. Yeah. I had something like, I had something to do the work for. Right. And then around 2015, I opened my first, like, uh, 2016 I opened my first like retail storefront studio essentially outside of my home.
And that's when I moved into, uh, packages. And then I built the value-based model that I still run my business on. It's what I coach my students on. I did [00:22:00] that in around like 2018. I've basically been products, product driven since pretty, since I went full time pretty early on.
?: So
Brittany Elise: you,
Jodi Anne Hendricks: and you just got it.
What was that like in that, in between that like 20 15, 20 16 timeframe? Like what was like, you just got it, it just clicked in your head like, Hey, I need to be making more money at this. I need to have a better model at this. Or was there somebody that you were following that really clued you in of like, I need to invest in this education so that I can learn this model?
Brittany Elise: Yeah, so I kept seeing I-P-S-I-P-S, like I kept seeing, you know, and like you kind of think back of like, I had this conversation with Zach and we were just talking about like just such big business stuff and I was like, gosh, I remember a time when like I. Barely knew anything I was equivalent to like an [00:23:00] infant in the in business world.
You know,
Jodi Anne Hendricks: that was me three years ago. Switching from a wedding photographer into portraits, being like, okay, I'm a newborn baby again.
Brittany Elise: Oh, stop. You still had so much g. Shoot. God. I like, I literally like praise the ground that wedding photographers walk on because it is a hard job.
I mean, it is like, I am like, bless these people because I could not do it at all. I like joke. I will deal with a toddler throwing themselves on the floor over like a bride who's about to have a panic attack. Like I give me, give me all the people who don't know how to take direction or think rationally Over over.
Yeah.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Gimme anything. Anything over weddings. I love it. Okay, hold on. What were we, we were talking about so that, that switch that happened whenever you were hearing IPS all over the place. Yeah. And wanting to learn that model. Who was it that you followed [00:24:00] that you like invested in in order to learn that model?
Brittany Elise: So I was in that group IPS Masterminds at one point I joined it. I recall. So one thing that I noticed very early on is if you look at the people who have been doing this for a long time and doing it well and making significant revenue, we're selling products. Yeah. Have to be. And I realized very early on the rat race that is digital images.
You are trading your time for money.
?: Yeah. Whereas
Brittany Elise: when you move into a product-based business, you are letting the products and the value of the overarching services attached to them do the work for you. Do the, so you have people who, and this is where I get into my value-based model that I teach, the value that people place in not just pretty pictures, but the [00:25:00] value that people place in the finished products that you deliver to them with your sessions, and so you're letting the products do the work for you.
I mean, yes, you are still shooting and you are still editing and all that, but you're doing a fraction of it, but you're making significantly more because the value is in, is in the entire process with the results of products at the end.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Yeah. My biggest thing too, I think I talked about this before on a different podcast with Shannon, is that the minute that I switched into that process, I found myself so much more inspired as a photographer.
So much more willing to go to the, like whenever somebody had paid me and I was doing just digitals and I had to go to the shoot, I was like, that money has been spent a long time ago. Like, I would go to the shoot feeling as though I was working for free because they had booked me. Even if they had booked me for, you know, $2,000 or 1450, I think is like what I used to do.
A lot of times I would feel like that money [00:26:00] is already gone, that money is already spent, I don't, I don't have anything to work for on this shoot. Yes. And now that it's switched, it's like I show up to the shoot and in my head my. Revenue is based on how well I show up. Yep. It's how, what, like the images I create, I know I have to get there, I have to hustle.
I have to like be creative and be on and be inspired and make sure that I'm creating for my clients in a whole different way. And that in and of itself has completely transformed my output, my creations, what I'm making with my images. And I love that part of it because again, that internal competition that I always have with myself, I'm sure you're thinking the same thing now.
Well, for your team, you're thinking the same thing now that like we're all going into fall family session, so we're all gonna be like at our busiest. And I'm chomping at the bit of like, oh, I'm gonna do this for this person and this for this person. I'm gonna blow this person's socks off because I know that [00:27:00] my revenue is also tied to that.
So it keeps me in a place of being inspired.
Brittany Elise: Yeah. And for the, for the people listening who are not photographers, like, I love to share with my clients. I, I love for them to see part of what they're investing in when they come to our studio, to our studio. A huge thing with working with a digital photographer is they're getting paid a flat rate.
So whether they show up and blow your socks off or show up and have an off day mm-hmm. They're gonna make the same amount of money.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Yep.
Brittany Elise: Whereas when you work with a photographer like us, the better we perform for you as the client, the better results you get and the better results we get. Yeah. And so it's actually a very positive working relationship because there's motivation on both sides.
Just like what you were saying, digital photographers show up to shoot and that money has basically already been spent. They don't have the [00:28:00] desire to the same motivation that we have, right? Yeah. To create the end result that is truly for the client. And so, you know, I, I think as a client from the outside, people think, oh, well this is so much easier.
But also you end up getting a much more diluted experience. I think a lot like I'll have clients sitting in an ordering appointment and they'll say, thank you. For not giving me 150 photos.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Yeah. Mine too now. Yeah.
Brittany Elise: Thank you for spending the time to give me the best of the best of the best.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Yeah.
Brittany Elise: That process as a photographer takes time to give you the best of the best to do the head swaps.
To land the incredible family photo. Right. That takes work before Right. You even deliver that gallery. So I think to myself, like these photographers that [00:29:00] literally just deliver the, it's It's laziness. It's laziness. Yeah. 'cause at the end of the day, it, they have to spend another hour and a half making. A gallery of 150, they have to spend the time to call out the bad ones, to do the head swaps.
That hourly rate is getting less and less and less. I literally
Jodi Anne Hendricks: used, I used to say, you might as well go work at McDonald's because your hourly wage is just
Brittany Elise: as low. So then you have these photographers who are trying to make more, right? But then they're struggling to raise their prices because they're not adding value, right?
Mm-hmm. And so, and they're also competing in the space of the market that's on price. You are really competing on price when you're in the digital only. Only a section. Yeah. And so you're like, okay, well how do I make more money? And then you start cutting corners and you start delivering average work.
You start, you know, like,
Jodi Anne Hendricks: because the only [00:30:00] way to make more money is to do more shoots. Yeah. And the only way to do more shoots is to compromise yourself. So, and then you're gonna lead to burnout. It's like such a, like, I don't know, domino effect that's gonna lead you down that path. For sure. A hundred percent.
Yep. Okay. Go back to like, say, whenever you were first making the switch, even like the couple of years after you first made the switch, so 2016, 2018, 2019, that kind of like range, like when a client would come in and say, we just want digitals. What's, what's your response that you give clients whenever they come in?
They're like, no, I don't want the products and I know you don't have this anymore because you've built such a great like brand, such a great business that people come in, they know they're doing framing with you, so, mm-hmm. Not talking about this now, but from before when you were making the switch and when you had clients coming in saying like, we don't want all these products, we just want the digitals.
What was your response to that?
Brittany Elise: So when it comes [00:31:00] to the digital images, especially in those earlier days when I was first starting in products, right? Because you are making a switch, you are making a massive model switch. Massive. And so naturally you're gonna have, and I'll just say this in general, people inquiring that they just want digital files never goes away.
as a whole, our industry has conditioned people to think that that is what they want. Mm-hmm. Because you go onto any photographer's website and they're talking about digital images and so naturally. Leads, consumers think, well, I must, I'm supposed to want digital images because that's what I'm seeing out here in this universe of photography.
Right? So, but when it comes to like talking to them, my biggest thing is just to lead my clients with a service driven heart. And I know deep within the core of like who I am as a business, that giving my clients digital images only is a [00:32:00] massive dis disservice to them. Massive. It's a massive disservice to them.
I am just cont I'm, I'm not only letting my work exist nowhere in a cloud, on an iPhone, right, on Instagram, which is, I believe my work He's worthy of so much more than Instagram. And so just literally leading that process with my clients from the service driven heart that I believe to the core of my existence.
And so I do think a good pricing strategy is important, important to that. So our pricing reflects that. We value artwork. And so for a lot of our clients who think they want digital images, they're encouraged into products because of how it's structured. I will turn leads away Who? Genuinely do not have any interest in products and I can, you know.
Oh, interesting. Yes. I'll, so you have,
Jodi Anne Hendricks: you have a whole entire like, kind of like pre-booking like situation where [00:33:00] if they tell you like some sort of a questionnaire or some sort of a process that happens before the shoot, before they're booking, that if they tell you that they only want digitals and they're not budging on that they have no interest in anything else, then they just don't get to work with you.
Brittany Elise: Yeah. I've just point blank on a consultation call told someone like, listen, I, I can tell that price, price point is, is a big concern for you. know, 'cause they're asking a lot of pricing questions and they're trying to break that down and they're trying to say, Hey, well if I do a 30 minute shoot instead of the 60 minute shoot, and what if I want 10 photos instead of 60?
You know? So like when they're really trying to break, I'll just be very honest and I'll say, because I know that this is. I can just tell like our studio really truly values a bigger picture beyond digital files, and I think you would be so much better served by a photographer who specializes in only that.
I know that bringing somebody like that into my business is going to leave our cup ex just [00:34:00] honestly very unfold. At the end of the day. It's, it's extremely disappointing when we work with, with, and, and there's something wrong with that, right? But like, at the end of the day, like, I've been doing this for a decade now, and so like, I wanna go home and feel fulfillment.
I wanna go home and be like, wow, I love my job, I love what I do and I know that working with. Somebody like that, it's just, it's not gonna be good for them. It's not gonna be good for me. And so I will, I'll refer them to somebody and I'll just be very honest. And I've had people literally point blank, say, thank you so much.
Thank you so much for, for hearing me and recognizing that. Yeah. And and so, uh, I will say there are people who I think want digital images, but they want digital images because no one's ever shown them. What the options are. And so for a lot of our clients, that's why they're coming to us because they do want their handheld and they want someone to show them what the options are.
And when you couple that with a pricing [00:35:00] model that encourages products puts value in the products naturally you end up with product sales. So yeah.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: I've seen the opposite happen too. And I think that it's because I'm more like in the infancy of running a product-based business is that sometimes, like say I go through my whole fall sessions and then I've got like a week opened or something that I could still do, like, oh, okay.
Like if any of you guys didn't get your fall session that you wanted, let's do a quick, like in the studio, just mini sessions sort of a week. Mm-hmm. And I'll get clients in during that time. Who think that they don't wanna spend the money with me, that they know that I charge. And they'll come in and they'll do a mini session and they'll get, they always think that they're gonna get off cheap, even with a mini session, but they come in and they do the session and they fall so much in love with the photos.
And then because [00:36:00] my pricing is set the way that it is, they're still really investing heavily on just getting the digitals, if that's what they end up really deciding. But then they go through that whole process with me and it almost like trains them to think in the product based way, so that by the time the next season comes around, they turn into full-fledged like fall family, like clients, and they're spending the money and they're doing the products because they got this like little taste of it.
Mm-hmm. Just during. The mini session sort of thing too. So it's interesting to see people come in thinking that they want one thing and then they have the experience with me and they see what we can like do together, and then they're all of a sudden they're trained and they're like, they, it's like they've got a taste of the luxury side.
And so they're like, no, now I want all of the pie. And so they end up coming back. And some of those people end up being like, some of my best clients too, because they went through that like bootcamp sort of version of it, [00:37:00] right? Yep.
Brittany Elise: And there's definitely, I, I do like, I agree with you. There's like some clients that just, it's ki it's it, it's like that process over time and you kind of chip away at them, right?
You chip away. Like you might get them a small product and then, and then all of a sudden they're like, well, why am I gonna do this? This is like, and really truly like when you step back as a client and you think, I. You, you realize the amount of value that we provide. We are experts in gallery wall design.
We are experts in album design. We create the beautiful imagery. We know how that imagery comes together In a finished product, we have access and we have curated an incredible product line, right? So when you really think like, Hey, I'm just gonna get my digitals and I'll do that myself. Smart clients. And I don't mean to say, I tell them all the time, I'm like, you'll never do it, but you'll never do it.
Yeah. So [00:38:00] you'll, one, you'll never do it, but let's just talk about the learning curve to even try to do it yourself.
?: Yeah, yeah.
Brittany Elise: And so most of my clients are working professionals that realize that their time is so much better suited doing something else and letting me the expert do it for them. Yeah.
And so, and certainly I will say that like I have found that the more mature, the older my clients are, the more financially established they are, the more valuable their time becomes, the more ideal of a client they are. When you're getting these people who just graduated college, just got married. Just got their first career, you know, and it's hard for them because their time hasn't become exponentially more valuable as a mom who's maybe a little bit more further down the road, road in her journey.
So, yeah,
Jodi Anne Hendricks: I feel like I, I felt that kind of, I don't necessarily know that it was a growing pain, but I felt that kind of struggle whenever I switched over because a lot [00:39:00] of my clients were from my weddings, right? So like the couples that I had shot their weddings and now I'm switching over into doing product base, and they are younger couples.
They do have a lot more expensive, they've got little bitty kids and they're not as established in their careers. And so that was a hard jump for them to make. But a lot, surprisingly, a lot of them still made it because they valued everything that I was doing so much. So it was like. I know it's a hard jump to make, but once you do it, it's so much more.
Even just for me in my business, it's so much more of a fulfilling business for me to run knowing that I'm serving my clients in that kind of way. Okay. So say you are like sitting in your, I call them a proofing meeting. You call them an ordering meeting, sales meeting, whatever it is that you're gonna call them.
What are three things that you consistently say during the sales process when you are, I don't wanna say [00:40:00] convincing people to do products because I don't think that they need much convincing, but in order to like get to the point that you are making the average sale that you're making, what are three like consistent things?
Brittany Elise: Well, I think, and I say this from having coached people too, I think that one of the. Most important things that you're doing and your ordering appointment is asking intentional questions. Yes. And listening. And listening to what your client says. And so a lot of times clients have objections and so you need to be prepared to speak to those objections and how you solve those objections.
But when you lead your ordering appointment with intentional questions, you guide your client to a decision that they were a part of. I think a lot of times we go into ordering appointments and it feels salesy because [00:41:00] you're in it for yourself, you're in it for your sale. And I go into my ordering appointments in it for my clients.
Yeah. And I ask them the intentional questions to deliver on a beautiful product that's reflective of what they. Want for their home and what, and, and I, a lot of times I have to show them what that is, but I ask them intentional questions to get to the bottom of like clarity around what that's gonna look like for them.
Yeah, so definitely intentional questions. the other thing is guiding the sale as an expert. I think a lot of times sales, you know, I see, you know, I'll go do follow up calls with some of my coaching students and sales will fall apart and they're like, I can't figure out why I can't close these.
I can't, I don't know what happened. And. More often than not, they lose their position as the expert and they let their clients sort of like [00:42:00] take over the sales process. Mm-hmm. And I think there's a way of delicately being the expert in the guide in the process and not letting somebody like overtake you or allow their indecision to escalate to a point of losing the sale.
And so being the expert is key in that process. And that takes time to learn. You don't, you don't just suddenly start doing sales and you're an expert, right? Like, I've been doing this. No, sales is
Jodi Anne Hendricks: literally the hard, I feel like sales is the hardest thing that you have to learn as a photographer. You think that you're getting in and you're just, you know, a photographer and you're running a photography business.
And it's wild the amount of time I spend on the sales side.
Brittany Elise: Yeah, it's definitely and I think more often than not the reason why people. Leave IPS or don't find success is that they're not giving [00:43:00] like people want. I think we just like live in this microwave world where we want like instant results, right?
And I explain to my students that this is a slow cooker, okay? Like you cannot start this tomorrow and expect the sales that I have. You just can't. And any educator who tells you that, walk the other way. Okay? So it takes time to learn how to listen to your clients, to learn how to guide them as the experts.
And so you might start with lower sales, but as you get better, as you do this, more as you custom design for them, you're going to be a lot more effective in the sales room process. It's not gonna happen overnight, and I think a lot of people quit. They want that, like they want it now. They want the big sales.
They're like, why am I not getting this? And they end up like puttering out. You know? They get exhausted by the work that it takes to actually [00:44:00] refine and be good at it.
Jodi Anne Hendricks: Yeah. No, I agree. I love what you said before about like really making sure that you're asking intentional questions. That's one of the very first things.
Whenever somebody comes into the studio and they sit down, and I know that we're gonna go through proofing the very, one of the very first things that I ask is, what is your goal? Like, how do you want to enjoy these photos in your life? Because not a single person is going to tell you that they want these photos to die on their cell phone.
Like, not a single person is going to say, I want to only post these once a year on my Instagram whenever it's somebody's birthday. And then I wanna like never look at them again. I wanna spend all of this money and then never enjoy my photos. Nobody is gonna give you that answer. Yeah. But you also can't wrap the sale around whenever you go through the process.
Like if they're giving you those answers at the beginning saying, I, I love these photos so much. I wanna enjoy them every single day. I wanna make sure that my [00:45:00] kids see these photos. I wanna make sure that my grandkids see these photos. Then whenever you get into the ordering process and they say to you, I only want digitals, you have that answer already there.
You can say, but wait, hold on. You've already told me that a goal for this is that you want to be able to enjoy the photos every day. And the way that you enjoy the photos every day is they're either up on your walls or they're sitting on your coffee table. They're, they're, they're there, they're accessible so that you can curl up on a couch and you can look at that album or you can wake up and walk into your.
Living room or your kitchen or wherever your like main area that your family hangs out. You can see that every single morning. You can talk about those memories that you had together. That's how we enjoy it every day. If I give you just these digitals, they're gonna die on your phone because at some point your phone is going to blow up.
You're gonna have to go get a new one. And will you then go into your online gallery [00:46:00] and re-download all of these photos so that you can scroll through and look at these photos at night while you're about to lay in bed when your children aren't even there with you? Absolutely not. Yeah. But if you don't ask those intentional questions on the front end, then you never have that.
I don't wanna say it as ammunition because I don't, it's not ammunition. 'cause it's not, it's not hostile. Right. But you don't have that information to give back to them to say you're guiding yourself down the wrong path. And it is my job to step in and guide you down the path that you told me you wanna walk down.
Brittany Elise: Yep. So exactly I, I think that that single-handedly is one of the most important questions, and it has to happen early because you'll have these clients who will walk through indecision, right? They'll walk themselves down the path of indecision. Right? Right. And then what gets easy for the client is to make no decision.
Outro: Okay, so that is a wrap on this episode of the Posers [00:47:00] 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.
