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.
Hello? Hello, hello. My beautiful posters. Okay. Let's throw down the biggest announcement that you guys all read in your inbox on Friday, right? Because I know that you are all opening my emails, right? Well, actually. Uh, because I got it, like hate mal response [00:01:00] that from one of my readers that they wanted to be unsubscribed because they were mad that, uh, the subject line, the title of the email that went on Friday had the word shit in it.
Mind you, it had an asterisk for the I, but either way, apparently that was too offensive. That person did not read my email. But you wanna know what's fun about business, getting to do it exactly the way that you want, and being able to say. It's okay that you don't get me. It's okay that you wanna unsubscribe.
It's okay that you are not my people. And then to just get to, you know, get right back onto business and do the thing that you wanna be doing. Okay, but back to the announcement, we freaking did it. Okay, last Thursday I hit [00:02:00] 202,000 freaking dollars over the course of four months. From August 1st through the end of November, I promised that I would only.
Count the income that came in from the photography side of my business and that I was gunning to make $200,000 in those four months of August, September, October, November of the shoots that I had booked for this fall, and I did it, and I can't freaking believe. That I did it. I knew that I was getting close, but I wasn't sure if I was completely there.
So after my last proofing meeting last Thursday, I did some quick calculations because a few people, it might have been Wednesday. You know, not that that matters at all, but I, it might've been Wednesday [00:03:00] 'cause I think it took us a couple days to get the email out. But I did a few calculations because a few people have actually zed me this year to pay me or paid cash.
And that doesn't. Usually happen. I had one person write a like old school check. That doesn't usually happen. So this season it wasn't as easy to just like check my Stripe account to know what my numbers were. I had to keep this kind of like running spreadsheet over on the side of people who had paid me in different ways.
Um. So I did a few calculations and whenever 200, $2,000 stared back at me on my calculator, it somehow felt so real and so not real all at the same time. So real, because I know. That I have been pushing so freaking hard. Even I had a proofing meeting [00:04:00] today. And even during that meeting, uh, my client, she was, we were talking about how busy I am right now and how much I'm in the studio and how much I am not at home because I was supposed to take my meeting with her at home today and 'cause it's Sunday right now.
No, God dammit. It's Saturday right now. My God, I can't keep anything straight. It's Saturday. And I had told her that I was gonna do her proofing meeting from home 'cause she wanted to do it over Zoom. And I was laughing because she was like, I thought you told me that you were gonna be at your house.
And clearly my Zoom camera was showing that I was in the studio and I was laughing and I was just like, yeah, I know I am not in my house clearly. And she was like, yeah, I get it. I know like how busy you are, but also like Jodi, you kind of did this to yourself. And I was like, I know. I know. I know. I did it to [00:05:00] myself.
And she said this too, she was like, you marketed these in a way this year that you collected every single one of these shoots that you wanted to be doing. And I was like, yes. And I did it so intentionally. So. In that sense, it feels very real that I literally like premeditated and orchestrated this kind of season.
But on the other side, it feels so not real because it's like. What even is this kind of money? I have never made this kind of money in one season 'cause I've never pushed myself this hard. So celebration kind of, I don't know, like came in and sat on one shoulder, uh, whenever I looked at the calculator and saw that number.
It's like I'm celebrating on this one side, but then on my other shoulder a new little, a new [00:06:00] level devil sat on the other side and I felt this immediate sense of like. Holy shit. Look at what we accomplished on one side. Followed immediately by like, holy shit, can I keep this up? Holy shit, how can I scale this and not lose myself?
How can I bring on a team member? Where do I go from here? But the only answer that was in my head is. Up. That's where we go because obviously, yes, the number is thrilling, but the real story, the real celebration is that it? It's what hitting that number actually. Represents because it represents that I've built a business that is not based on luck.
It is not based on a good season. It's not based on, you know, bee bopping and shoulder bopping and being all cute on Instagram. It's not [00:07:00] writing the algorithm of hope It is. Structure. It is psychology, it is clarity, and most importantly, it's consistency and execution. It's choosing to run your business like a business even.
When your body's tired, even when your calendar gets a little crazy, even whenever you're tempted to fall into the same survival patterns that have kept you stuck in the past, this $200,000 challenge worked because I didn't rely. On anything else except for the plan that I put in place. And every dollar came from understanding human behavior and building momentum on purpose, and creating demand instead of waiting for it and refusing to let any of my past behavior dictate what my future path is going to be.
And. [00:08:00] That right there is where today's episode begins. Actually, hold on pause before I dive into what we're talking about today. I do wanna say this one thing. It was in my dms. 'cause immediately the moment that I hit the 200, 2000, I immediately sent a DM into the old group chat for last year's mastermind and I was like, oh.
Holy crap. I did it. And it sparked a ton of conversations. Inside of that group chat, a ton of them are DM-ing me on the side, having side conversations. And I was in this side conversation with one of the photographers and she was like, holy crap, what are you gonna do to celebrate? And I was like. I'm not, I'm not gonna celebrate.
I am not done with my season. I'm still shooting. I still have, and a lot of these shoots that. I'm still doing, they were reschedules that happened in [00:09:00] November, so they were supposed to be accounted for in the total that we're talking about here. So I hit the 200, 2000 that I hit and I hit it without ever even finishing.
So I still have like, I think 10 or so sales meetings that I still have to run in order to determine what I. Would make through this whole entire season. And that's absolutely crazy to me that I think I'm going to end the season closer to about like $250,000. But anyways, she asked me how I was gonna celebrate and I was like, oh my God, I'm not, I'm gonna sit my butt right here in this chair and I'm gonna keep on prepping for these.
Proofing meetings and I'm gonna keep on putting together slideshows and I'm gonna keep on making, you know, uh, frame mockups. I'm gonna keep on doing the same thing 'cause I'm not done yet. And then I got to thinking about it and I was like, no, you know [00:10:00] what? I am gonna celebrate. So I'm gonna tell you how I celebrated.
I, uh, hopped online and I purchased seven round trip tickets for. Me, my husband, my boys, his kids for all seven of us to meet up for the summer and pop on over to my favorite country on the planet. We will be going to Italy. We're gonna start off in Venice and then drop down and do the bucket list location of my dreams that I have been looking at since even.
The wedding that we had in 2023, we did that on the Amalfi Coast, but even then, I was coveting the Ugia region and wishing that we could do the wedding in that region, but we couldn't because it's harder to get to. So we will be doing Venice and then popping down and doing the whole entire UG nuclear region for about two [00:11:00] weeks next summer.
And. That is something that I am so crazy excited for, and that is how we will be celebrating as a family that I kicked ass. I kicked like, I don't know how else to say it. Like I, I got the goal that I wanted to get, but more than anything, I just fucking kicked ass. Okay? And that's how we are going to celebrate.
Okay? But enough, enough, enough about. The $200,000 challenge. Actually, I don't know when I'm gonna start, stop talking about that, but let's dive into today's episode. I was saying before that every single dollar came from understanding human behavior and building momentum and creating demand, and refusing to let, this is the important part, refusing to let our past behavior dictate what our future looks like.
And that's where we're jumping in because if there's one thing that keeps photographers in the same income bracket year [00:12:00] after year, it is not a lack of skill. It is not a lack of talent. It is not your location. It is not your market. It. Okay. It's the sunk cost fallacy. Write that down because it's so crazy important in business.
The sunk cost fallacy. Now, let's talk about this. The sunk cost fallacy. Say that 10 times fast is a psychological trap that convinces you. To keep investing in something simply because you've already invested in it, even when it's clearly not working. We see this everywhere. All right. This is Blockbuster.
Blockbuster clung. To physical brick and mortar stores because they had already built thousands of them all while Netflix [00:13:00] came along and stole their business right out from underneath them. Kodak refused to embrace digital even though they literally invented it, which is wild, right? Blackberry, if you've never studied.
The story of the business behind Blackberry, please do so. I think that I might have watched a documentary on it at some point, but, uh, I don't remember. It was a, it was a long time ago, but it's fascinating because Blackberry, they doubled down so hard on keyboards being on their phones while. The world was sprinting towards touchscreens, and it completely, buried their business.
It put their business six feet under these companies. They didn't fall because they were stupid. Obviously they fell because they were loyal to [00:14:00] the wrong version of the business. They let. Their past investments choose their future outcomes, and that's exactly what so many photographers are doing right now in their business.
How do I know this? Because I'm in my dms like crazy right now talking to all of you because I'm on calls listening to all of your mental blocks over and over and over again. Deciding right now who gets to be in the Mastermind in the coming year with me, and so many of you are. Emotionally attached to the version of your business that you have currently built.
Even if that version of your business is the one that's holding you back, like. Some of you have spent years shooting every single gen, uh, genre of photography. That's a hard word to say. Every [00:15:00] single genre, every niche or you're, you're stuck inside of one niche because you invested in. Maybe a ton of style shoots, or you already have the client wardrobe, or you already have the studio built and you don't want it anymore.
Or you've got all of the newborn paraphernalia that comes along with newborns. I love saying paraphernalia with newborns as if it is drug paraphernalia, but that's what newborn photography requires is a lot of paraphernalia. Okay. Maybe you are like holding onto your old pricing because you took that like crazy expensive course and that's how they told you to do it.
Or maybe you're clinging to blogging because. Like, even though it's not converting for you, maybe you're committing to it because you spent thousands having someone optimize your SEO, or maybe you're burnt from [00:16:00] another mastermind or another course that over promised you something and then underdelivered.
So now you're scared to trust any other course or any other mastermind or even to trust yourself again, because you're saying in your head like, well. That failed that time. Well, that didn't work for me. What's not to say that this isn't gonna work for me either. That is sunk cost thinking. It keeps you trapped in systems.
That no longer serve you because you're thinking in your head, oh, I've already spent all of this money on this one thing. I have to stay the course, or I've already spent all of this money on this one thing and it didn't work for me, so I have to stay that course. It keeps you trapped in those systems that don't serve you anymore.
It keeps you undercharging because you think like, oh, well. [00:17:00] That's how it's always been, and that's the only thing that's ever gonna work for me. Or you avoid doing launches because it's just another thing that you have to learn. It's doubting education because somebody else taught you poorly, or it's being locked into a business that isn't working the way that you need it to work.
Let's wrap our brains around. A new way of thinking right here. Your past investments are not your business model. Your past decisions, I'm gonna say this like four times 'cause I want this like tattooed into our brains. Your past decisions do not require your future loyalty. Lemme say that again. Your past decisions do not require your future loyalty.
Your sunk costs are not a life sentence that you have to serve. You are allowed to [00:18:00] pivot. I have pivoted more times than people realize, not because I was lost. But well, sometimes because I was lost, but because I kept on outgrowing my old operating system, every time that I feel ready to jump in my business, I jump.
I trust my gut so dang hard, so dang much. No matter how much I have sunk into another method or another business or another. Late night daydream, I switched from being a wedding photographer to saying, no, I don't ever want to shoot another wedding again on a dime. My, I wasn't married then, but my fiance at the time was like, you are gonna stop shooting weddings when they're paying you 20 to $25,000.
You're, and you're gonna what? [00:19:00] And I jumped, I said, yeah, I don't wanna do weddings anymore. I want a studio space. I want to work outside of my house. And at the time I literally thought. That I was gonna have the studio space and that I was just gonna book more boudoir in the same operating way that I was booking boudoir out of my home.
And that didn't happen because once I got into the studio, immediately I saw this system isn't working for me. I've gotta jump. I own like seven LLCs or something. Literally I have like I have a house of Hendricks, LLC, which from when I was gonna dabble in interior design, I have the divorcee collective, LLC, when I wanted to teach women how to thrive.
Inside of their divorces. I own so many website domains [00:20:00] I own House of Hendricks. I own divorce a collective. I own so many different variations of those. I own tits up ears open.com, just so that nobody else can own it out from under me because. Someday. I love the saying in the intro of the podcast, hits up, ears open.
I find it so freaking fun and I find it polarizing and I find that it gives me my people automatically in one sentence. Okay? And I own. Dozens more of those. I literally, I dosey dough all around the place, following my intuition and following my gut, but also seeing the data, knowing whenever something's not working for me and deciding that I need to pivot something.
The minute that my pricing feels too low, I raise my pricing. If I wanna talk about something controversial, I plug in my mic. If I love something that I have read or [00:21:00] that I've learned or that I've figured out, I dive in, I test it inside of my business. I look at the data that it gives me, and then I move accordingly.
And every single time I let go or I find a better path, my business grows. And even sometimes whenever they like. Present themselves as mistakes. Like one time I spent $15,000 to get inside of a mastermind that I thought was gonna be the right move for me, and I got inside of this mastermind and it turned out that it wasn't.
Anything of what I expected that it was gonna be, and I didn't get anything out of it that I thought that I was going to get, and I never even saw the value in that $15,000 until about a year later whenever I needed. To start building a team inside of my business and inside of [00:22:00] that Mastermind was where I met one of the most important people who is now in my life, who is running the entire backend of my business.
And then it all clicked and it made sense. That that wasn't actually a mistake. That was a pivot. Okay. Mistakes don't exist. Only learning does. Pivots aren't failures. They actually create possibilities. I wouldn't be able to have. Any of this podcast, any of the mastermind, any of my education, any of anything.
Had I not spent that $15,000 to get inside of that mastermind that I felt like I didn't get a lot out of, which then in turn, clearly I got the most out of. Now my mastermind is not a course, it's not an inspirational clubhouse. It is not a kumbaya circle where we're gonna chant under the moonlight and hold a [00:23:00] seance.
Although, hold on. That actually sounds really sick. That sounds really fun. And we need to schedule another time to do that. But that is not what the Mastermind is. The Mastermind is structured. It is intentional. It is psychology driven. It is business accelerating. It is the pivot that you need. It is for the women who knows that they have sunk costs.
Knows that there are years of habits and patterns and systems and investments, but also know that they can keep living inside of the business that is built on those outdated beliefs and stay stuck. Or they can pivot and they can jump into something that they know is right. But for God's sakes, I beg you.
To stop saying the [00:24:00] words. Well, I've already put so much into this because that's a statement that I keep hearing over and over and over again that you're trying it this one way and you've put so much effort in and you've put so much time in and you've put so much money in that you, you're stuck in this head space of saying, I've already put so much into this.
I can't. Jump now. I can't deviate now. Instead, I wanna ask you what will actually get you to where you want to go, saying that you've already put so much into this and that you have to stay committed to it. Is that going to get you where you actually want to go or. Maybe you think that leave the past in the past if it's not serving you.
The Mastermind spans for 12 weeks. You guys 12. [00:25:00] That's right. 12 weeks that you were, you will be overwhelmed with the level of strategy and information. We're spending weeks on foundational funnel building. That is actually already built for you. It's already done for you. My team has already done it and built it, and all you're gonna do is just plug and play.
We're spending weeks on understanding the language that you must use inside of every single piece of business collateral, along with a clear understanding of two very wildly different, but equally effective marketing techniques that will run through every single piece of content and emails and newsletters and guides and lead magnets.
We're spending weeks learning the launch strategy that has people craving I, I cannot tell you how many people I've gotten on calls with and they're like, tell me about your launch [00:26:00] system. Tell me about your launch strategy. Tell me how you do this. Tell me what this looks like. I watched you do this, and holy crap, that's what I need.
That's what I want. They're craving the idea of having their entire seasons booked out at once because why not? If you can book out your whole entire season at once, why do the other system, why pound the pavement? Why get on discovery calls that I know you hate? Because we all do, right? It is 20. This launch system is 27 emails.
That literally prints you money for your business. That's, I'm not even gonna jump into this, the idea of like you having to do IPS, because I know all of you are scared shitless of IPS, but even without that. Even if you don't wanna adopt that piece that's inside the Mastermind, 27 emails that literally print money for your business because shoots are on the books.
Whether you're gonna run, shoot, and burn, or whether you're gonna run IPS, or whether you're [00:27:00] gonna run something somewhere in the middle of those. Two, the shoots are on the books, and that's the number one thing that photographers have to have in order to be successful, is shoots on the books. It's 27 emails that get handed to you, completely done.
You just copy and paste them into your business. The system that just made me $200,000 in the last four months, I'm handing it to you. Granted, you're not gonna make $200,000. In four months if you don't do IPS, but I'm handing you this system that prints the money because the shoots are on the calendar, we're gonna spend weeks dissecting every single touch point that's in my business weeks of breaking down my exact pricing structure and how I safeguard my business from the digital only crowd.
In fact, this is so different than everything else you hear out there in the portrait world. I embrace the digital onlys [00:28:00] because they make me more money and come with zero overhead. It feels like bonus money whenever I do dish, just digitals. Okay. Do I want my clients to buy albums because I know that I'm serving their future selves?
Yes, of course I do, but. My sales script and my technique, it isn't built to strong arm sales. It's built to let the client choose exactly what they want for their family. And it's my job to simply lead them down the path and understand the psychology of that sale. And it's my job to understand how my pricing structure has to work in order to safeguard my revenue.
That's it. I am not. The type of person who strong arms into frames. I hate selling frames. I hate how many more touch points it adds in my business. I hate that I have to then go. And do an [00:29:00] install and that it takes weeks to get the frames delivered. I hate that I have to do all of the extra work for cropping and sizing and designing and then installing and doing all of that more stuff.
It takes up so much time in my business. Granted, do I price accordingly for all of that time? Yeah, of course I do, but I love albums. Albums make so much more sense to me, albums are the piece that are actually going to get handed down from generation to generation. Not to say that frames aren't, but to sit down on a couch and look through an album for me feels like that's something that I would wanna do with my boys versus having $10,000 worth of frames on my walls, so it's easier for me to sell.
The albums, but I'm getting off track here. The thing that I'm trying to tell you is that I am not the type of person who is strong arming inside of the sales room. [00:30:00] We're covering sales scripts and we're covering Objection. Rolling. For sure. I'm making sure that all of the discomfort happens. Inside of the safe space of the Mastermind so that you don't go out of the mastermind and then you're out there fumbling whenever it comes time to meet with clients.
Okay. I am teaching you all of this, every single bit of my business from how I get clients, how I keep clients, how I book clients, how I run clients, through the whole entire client experience, and then how I sell to clients, what my pricing looks like, and how I close them. Okay, I'm going over all of this live.
I'm teaching every single bit of it straight to you, straight from me to you over the course of 12 weeks. You also have one-on-one time with me baked into each week and an hour of direct [00:31:00] one-on-one time with me where I will get my hands all up in your business. Okay? Why did I automatically think about, nevermind, nevermind.
Nevermind. My head goes just like a teenage boy. Whenever I say my hands are all up in your business, that's where, that's where my head goes. But that time with me is, it's unfettered, it's undivided, it's me and you. And we're gonna layer all of this with even more amazingness because there's gonna be accountability pods and.
You know what, these are not study buddies. These are not emotional dumping grounds. It is not a group chat that is eventually going to devolve into. Meme sharing. Okay. I'm talking about real accountability. We're gonna have pods, they're gonna rotate every few weeks so that you build deep relationships with [00:32:00] everyone in the group and so that that support.
Keeps moving you forward instead of letting you set back into those old patterns. Women who see, you know, you understand you challenge you and don't let you shrink and keep you accountable inside of the Mastermind because sisterhood absolutely forms there is no question is that something huge and valuable that comes out of a mastermind?
Sure. Of course it is, but that's not the focus. The focus is growth and business. Those two things, scaling, add that into the mix. That's the priority I. Women come into this mastermind, one version of themselves, and they leave a completely other version. They come in undercharging, they leave profitable, they come in scared.
They leave with authority, [00:33:00] they come in stuck, and they leave with clarity and vision and a business, an actual business model and plan that matches the life that they tell me. That they're wanting to have. Do you feel like I'm talking straight through your speakers and directly at you? I hope so. If so, please know that that's recognition.
You are recognizing that the business you've been running is ready to be upgraded. You are recognizing that staying loyal to old investments will never, ever, ever create new results. You're recognizing that it's time to stop tweaking what doesn't work, and finally build. What does the $200,000 challenge is?
Proof, and it didn't happen because we stayed loyal to old stuck strategies. It happened because I stepped even further into my systems [00:34:00] that have been honed and tweaked and molded for years in order to truly work the way that they do. And you can do that too. All you have to do is book the discovery call.
All that you have to do is talk to my team. I want you to talk to my team. I want you to see how much support and structure is behind all of this, because it's not just me standing in front of a mic and claiming that I can teach you something great. It is backed with the women who have built the backend of my business with me.
A team that you get direct access to that can do the exact same for your business too. I want you to do this not because you're ready, not because everything is perfect, not because you're confident. Do this, because you know that you won't ever even reach the point of feeling ready or feeling perfect or feeling confident.
[00:35:00] Without this, do it because you're done staying stuck in systems and prices and habits and identities and those sunk costs that we're talking about here. Do it so that you can be done with all of those things that have held you back for far too long. Your next chapter starts the moment that you choose to pivot.
Book, the freaking call. The link is in your show notes. There were 30 spots that were open, but not anymore. We are down to filling in the last seats. There are only eight left, and we have four calls on the books already for next week and December 31st hits and the price goes up again. I'm curating this group with the right women.
I've asked some women [00:36:00] to get back at me in a year whenever they're more ready 'cause they're not ready yet. And honestly, 'cause I love to be transparent. Some women that I've really, really wanted to get into this thing with me, they've been too scared to make the investment. So I've said no to some people and some people have said no to me, and that's truth and that's honesty.
But I can promise you that every single person that comes into this mastermind is being vetted. Every single one of them is being hand chosen, but you don't even have a shot if you don't book the call. So it's up to you. Bye for now friends. Bye.
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, [00:37:00] 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.
