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 another episode of the Posers podcast. I hope that you all had a really incredible Thanksgiving. I'm gonna keep it 100 with you and tell you that I didn't have a very good Thanksgiving and I spent a lot of my time. Doom scrolling on my phone because [00:01:00] I was mostly alone for most of the break, and I saw a lot of people having these gorgeous holidays that were like surprisingly snow filled and like, oh my God, how magical.
The first. Snow of the winter, and it happened during Thanksgiving break when everybody's home and everybody's cozy and everybody's riding in these cute little horse drawn carriages through quaint little towns and just adoring their family. I saw a lot of that while I was on my couch, mostly by myself and surviving through, uh.
Very, very deep wound in my chest. The day before Thanksgiving, my oldest son turned 18, and I don't have daughters, so I don't know what the mother daughter bond feels like, but I know [00:02:00] what the mother son bond feels like and I. Especially know what the firstborn son feels like, but I think firstborn energy goes for any child.
But I celebrated the 18th birthday of my oldest son, and, uh, that created a crater. Inside of my chest. Not just that, but I also didn't have my boys with me over Thanksgiving because they were with their dad this year. We, we share the Thanksgiving holiday every other year and I was smart enough to put it into the decree that the boys will never.
Be away from me on Christmas day, but I never really anticipated Thanksgiving being hard and I obviously never, I mean, we got a divorce whenever Hudson was, what, 10 or 11 or something like that. So I could not see into the future and know [00:03:00] that I would be on his 18th birthday having to say goodbye to him that same day because he was hopping on a plane and going to Canada with his dad to see his other side of the family.
Not just him, but all three of my boys. And it terrifies me, terrifies me to my core when the three of them are all together traveling outside of me, especially a. On an airplane if we're all on an airplane together, if I'm on an airplane with them and I'm like, if this thing crashes, so be it. We're all just going to go up and smoke and we'll all be together.
And I know that I'm not like gonna have to live my life without them or leaving them without me either way. But whenever they're on an airplane. And it's the three of them, and they're separated from me. That in and of itself is also very hard. So the day before Thanksgiving was my son's 18th birthday.
Halfway through the day I had to say bye to all three of them. I was supposed to go to [00:04:00] Arizona with my husband, but some logistical things happened and he ended. Driving to Arizona on his own. And then I ended up flying there early on Saturday morning. So a lot of Wednesday, all of Thursday. All of Friday I was home binging.
Uh, whatever show on Netflix actually was a really, really good show on Netflix that I watched. Maybe it wasn't Netflix, I don't remember. It's called The Beast in Me with Claire Danes. I think it was Netflix. It was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. So, I loved that part of it. I was binging that I was binging Oreos, not a bit of Turkey in sight, thank God, because I hate Turkey.
But I'm telling you all of this just simply because. Uh, the holidays are hard sometimes, and if the holidays were hard for you, this last go around, I just kind of wanna let you know that [00:05:00] you're not alone 'cause it sucked balls for me too. Okay. Alright, let's hop into today's little epi. It will come as no surprise to anyone anywhere that I wanna talk about.
Money, money, money, money, money. We're not talking about the $200,000 challenge, even though that is trucking along, just, just fine and dandy. I will give you an update on that a little bit later in the week. Today we're talking about seeing cracks in your business, and we're talking about money that you may not even know that you were missing money that is quite literally sitting in your business, like unclaimed baggage money that you might walk right past because.
You might be too busy being a photographer and not nearly busy enough [00:06:00] being a business owner or a CEO. And I save that with love. I really do, because I did it too, and I'm gonna tell you exactly how I used to do it. But here's where all of this starts. Uh, in the last couple of years, something has snapped for me.
Not snapped, like, like, like the TV show that I went and like off my husband or anything like that. But like snapped into place over the last few years that I've shifted from weddings to portraits and opened a studio and I really started. Build and scale. Everything seems to have kind of gotten like tighter and sharper and clearer.
Like someone took Windex to the glass and I'm like finally seeing my like profit and loss statement the right way. Noticeably the moment happened whenever. I really [00:07:00] stopped studying how to be a better photographer, and I started studying how to be a better business owner. Moving into portraits was a huge shift because my audience knew me as a wedding photographer, so in order to make the shift, I had to start a.
Obsessing and studying marketing and sales and obsessing over human behavior and buying psychology and messaging and all of that instead of obsessing over like editing and lenses and pretty websites. And, you know, booking this part was fun, but booking really pretty European weddings. Okay, whenever I did this, whenever I shifted what I was obsessing over and what I was.
Studying everything just seemed to kind of crack open because that's whenever I started to see like the new like little crannies, the new little like spots in my business that could make [00:08:00] money for me. And that's whenever I realized also that I had been walking over, stepping over, sidestepping around and missing.
Bags and bags of money every single month simply because I didn't even know that they were there. And this month, specifically, two moments happened that brought in almost $8,000 of bonus money. Extra money, gravy money. And that's very, that's very on topic for the month of November, which is the month that we're talking about, even though today's December, but gravy money that I never would've seen in the past.
And today, we're gonna go into both. Okay. But first let's kind of set the context a little bit because this isn't just a money episode, this is a clarity [00:09:00] episode, a self-awareness episode. Uh, like, holy shit, how did I not see this sooner kind of episode. When your business becomes. Clearer when your messaging really sharpens, whenever your confidence builds and whenever your systems tighten, your brain starts scanning for opportunity and you literally start noticing things that you've never noticed before.
It's not that the opportunities weren't there. Before, it's that you couldn't see them because you were operating kind of from the wrong place. And like I said, that identity of being just a photographer or just a creative or a technician inside of your business, someone who. Takes photos and exchanges your time for money.
But once you shift into the identity of a business owner, then you see everything very differently. Let me explain kind of exactly what I mean, so. Let me tell you how I ended [00:10:00] up coming out of wedding photography. Retirement. I had zero intention of doing weddings ever again. None. Absolutely none. My body has seen enough 12 hour wedding days to last, a literal.
Lifetime. But then this inquiry came in to my dms. It's an incredible couple, a gorgeous location, actually, like a bucket list venue in Chicago, a wedding that is my exact ideal client. She has also been following me for years, and she was devastated to learn that I wasn't doing weddings anymore.
So she took a stab in the dark, even though she knew that I wasn't doing weddings anymore, she knew that I was a portrait photographer. Now she knew that I had opened a studio. She took a stab in the dark and I love it whenever gorgeous women slide into my dms. And that's exactly what she did. [00:11:00] And she basically was saying that.
Like she was gonna shoot her shot was what she was saying, that the worst thing that I could say to her was no. And that she would never be able to sleep at night if she didn't ask, and that she was basically willing to pay me anything to make it happen. And you guys, if you know me by now, you know that my ears perked up whenever she said that she was willing to pay me.
Anything. And I was like, Hmm, are you sure about that? Anything? And she said, yes. She said that she knows whenever I retired that I was making about 15 to $20,000 per wedding, and she knew that the price tag would be hefty. So I was like. Mm. Okay. Let's, let's chat a little bit. So we did, and I didn't see any glaring red flags.
She's amazing, obviously. So I sent her a custom proposal and. Unfortunately, she actually didn't book the collection that I wanted. The collection I wanted [00:12:00] her to book was 42,000. she told me, she was like, I know I said that I could pay you anything that might be a little bit too high. And I was like, okay, fair enough.
But she did book a lower collection that I offered that I will point out this one big caveat in this collection is that I'm only going. To be contracted to be shooting for six hours, which a normal wedding is eight, but a wedding like this would have been 10. So. She chose a collection where I'm shooting for only six hours and she's paying me $30,000 to do it, uh, $30,000 for six hours of work, which I'm then going to outsource the editing, and I'm not going to have much more to do after that.
I'm also going to put a team in place to where I'm not really doing that much work on the front end either. That's an amount of money that I will absolutely get out of bed for. [00:13:00] As you all know, I am a slut for money. Okay. This is no surprise. This also gave me a little bit of an opportunity to test out a theory because for years since I made the switch, one question has haunted me, and that is how much money did I actually leave on the table as a wedding photographer?
By not. Incorporating IPS even in some kind of hybrid capacity. So I decided to try it and we did their engagement session and instead of sending the gallery and just kind of checking it on my off my list, which I could have done because their engagement session happened on October 4th, which was my birthday.
So we were in Chicago for my birthday. I was doing their engagement photos. So October 4th, that is. Prime time. That is fall season. That is fall season madness. Okay. So I could have very [00:14:00] easily popped to Chicago, enjoyed my birthday, edited their photos, sent over the gallery, and called it a day because I had a million other things on my plate that I needed to be doing during my busy season, but I didn't, and instead.
I treated it like a normal portrait client, and I scheduled an IPS meeting, and with their engagement session, I built a slideshow. Still. I controlled the emotional environment still. I watched their faces, I saw their reactions. I let them feel the images, and I shared that with them. And then I took a moment to educate them.
Because their wedding collection includes a wedding album, but what they don't have in that wedding collection is an engagement album, which they would've had had they gone up to the $42,000, but they didn't because they chose the lower collection. So I already knew that [00:15:00] they loved the photos. So much, and I know this bride by now, so I knew that incorporating these photos that she loves because they are in love with the Chicago skyline, them incorporating them into their wedding would be an absolute no brainer for her.
So I walked her through a sales script that sold her a guest sign in book for the wedding, and right there on the call, right whenever the emotions were high, she lit up at this idea. Full body excitement. Sparkly Eyes, googly eyes, heart. Eyes. Instant. Yes. And she paid 32 50 on top of the $30,000 that they're already contracted with me for because we all know that money spent, it's money forgotten when it comes to sales.
So this is the part where. Most photographers might stop thinking, oh, hell yeah, I just made about $3,000 profit that I wasn't expecting [00:16:00] $3,000 profit after the cost of the album. Right? But in my head, again, this clarity, this click of knowing that there's more still on the table, I wasn't done because IPS isn't always just about that moment.
It's also about playing. The long game sometimes too, and it's about kind of planting those seeds. So while we were still in the emotional high of the slideshow, I greased the wheels even more asking her about what a dream gallery wall would look like. With mixing her wedding photos, which haven't happened yet.
They're gonna happen next year. But by mixing her wedding photos and her engagement photos together, and she lit up even more. So then of course she goes into this full story about how they're gonna move from their condo into a new home after the wedding. And that she was all for it. And she literally said to me that she watches me do this [00:17:00] on my social media.
She sees me talking about framing gallery walls all. The time and that the one line that stuck in my head that she said is. I'm so excited that it's finally my turn and that's incredible. Right? That's whenever I also knew that if I had done IPS with every wedding couple over the 15 years that I was shooting weddings, I would've made so much fucking money.
Okay. Probably double, maybe triple. The, the money that I was making as a wedding photographer and I didn't because I didn't know, but now I do, and I'm not gonna lie, that clarity hurts a little bit. Okay, so that sale made me a bonus of 32 50 this month, and so it's like, okay, cool, where I said that I [00:18:00] made an extra $8,000.
So where did that extra money come from? Well, while all this was happening, I've already told you about this before. Something else was working in the background, which was my past galleries, and I get it. It me talking about pass. This sounds like an ad for sure. Do I have a brand deal with pass? You bet your ass.
I do. Because first and foremost, I'm a business woman. I'm a business woman, and if I'm going to advertise for. Another company, then I'm going to have a brand deal with them. But would I have ever let them be a show sponsor if they didn't make me money so that I could still stand in my integrity while I told you how they make money for me while I sleep?
No. Absolutely not. So even though this sounds like an ad, I'm still going to tell it to you because in all honesty, in all Truth Pass is the only source of passive income that I have in my business, and it [00:19:00] has been working over time, just like I told you they would be because of Black Friday. So pass brought in an extra $4,492 into my business.
In November, in that one month, and I didn't do anything to make that money. I did absolutely nothing. Pass, did all of it for me. Pass set up. The automated Black Friday campaigns pass. Created the discount structure pass. Emails my clients pass reminds them of the fact that the, that the clock is ticking.
Right past collects the payments. My only job with this is to watch the deposits roll into my account, and this is after IPS. And I think that what that last example proved, and what I'm talking about here with past two, is that people buy from you again and [00:20:00] again and again, but only if you create the systems that allows them to.
And a lot of times photographers are only selling one time, and then you deliver the gallery and then you wash your hands and walk away from it. But the truth is, is that clients buy the most from you when they're emotionally connected to their photographs and the holidays. Amplify that emotion Pass knows this past leverages, this pass builds revenue for you while you sleep.
So between pass and the engagement, IPS, I'm sitting at almost $8,000 in extra bonus money this month. Money that. Younger me, I would've never collected money that would've evaporated into the wind money that was technically like already mine, but my systems [00:21:00] weren't strong enough to claim it. So I also know that even though Black Friday is over, I still have the month of December leading up into Christmas to know that I'm still going to make that kind of money from my clients who are all.
Ordering. Ornaments and holiday cards and presents for grandma, presents for aunties, presents for the people in their lives who will love to have their family photos in frames or on canvases or in albums or any other way that I am not going to be collecting post IPS. So once you start. Seeing things so clearly, you start to see money making opportunities so much easier.
So I want you to look at your business and see where you are already doing [00:22:00] work and where you can double down to make more money by selling the same work somewhere else like. If you're killing it with a proven email strategy to get clients not to ghost you turn that into a download and sell it. Or like, if you have a really like tried and true method for editing, make a YouTube series on it.
Or if you're. Amazing at understanding Google and Facebook ads. First, get at me 'cause I need you. I'm just kidding. But create a loom teaching other photographers how to do it and then sell that. I know that one area that I'm going to tap into next year. Because I started to do it this year, but I just didn't have the bandwidth to lock in that system with my stylist this year.
I'm going to connect my wardrobe styling to affiliate income because like I just said, I'm already doing that work and. My clients [00:23:00] obviously are constantly asking what to wear, and that's included in the service that I'm giving them. But also photographers are constantly screenshotting. Whenever I post wardrobe style boards, y'all sneak into my client email list and snag them from my launch.
Emails. Don't act like I don't see you doing this, okay, but what those graphics don't have. Are the links, and that's where the money is. And currently I don't make a dime from it and I want that to end next year because I don't want to do anything in my business that isn't making me money. So. My plan that I will put into place is to get like a, like to know or a shop my account up and running to build a Pinterest strategy that drives traffic into those affiliate links and turn the work that I'm already doing into an income stream.
But. Most importantly, I'm [00:24:00] gonna hire somebody to do that for me because I don't have the bandwidth to take that on. So I don't know the numbers yet. I'll need to invest in some education or some mentorship of some sort. I'll need support. But that path is obvious. But the path is only obvious because I stopped being a photographer and started.
Being a business owner, a photographer takes pictures. A business owner creates revenue, and once you get clear, like deeply clear on exactly what you want to build and where your superpowers are, you'll start to see your business differently. And once you see the money, you will never. Unsee it and you'll start collecting it because clarity breeds profit every single time.
Okay, it is December. [00:25:00] I want you guys to go to my show notes. I want you to lock in. With pass. Whenever you sign up with that link that's in the show notes, you're going to sign up for an audit. You're gonna basically get on a discovery call. They're gonna go through your whole entire system. Then you can literally tell them on that audit that you simply want your print store set up exactly like mine.
Also, whenever you use that link, they're gonna give you two months a pass for free, simply because you used my link. Okay. So it is December. I want you making money in your sleep, but I also want for you to take time to be resting your body a little tiny bit and while we rest our bodies, like I said in the last episode, our we get to start to light up our brains again because if January is.
A time for resolutions and fresh energy and a whole new outlook. [00:26:00] Then December is the month to get really quiet, really focused and set the intentions for where all of that January energy is going to get placed. So I will see you right here next week. 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, stapled, stay messy and don't let the bullshit win. Tits up. Ears open and go build something. Incredible. Bye for now, friends.
