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 and welcome back to Episode Number. Who the Hell Knows The Posters podcast. I am excited that you're here. I'm excited that you're listening. I am excited to chat today, right now. I'm actually really deep in renovations In the back room of my studio. [00:01:00] There is dust everywhere. I just did a photo shoot in here today and I got chalky white dust all over my black leggings because the floor is literally coated.
In this like fine white dust no matter how much I sweep. So the room is not Instagram worthy yet, but you know that I am storing along, storing no store eing and I. Say that I am creating stories along the way, uh, in order to keep everybody up to date so that they can feel like they're coming along for the build, just like I have talked about in previous episodes.
So, I hope that you're following along. I hope that you know exactly what I'm talking about. Something that I'm not sure I've ever talked about before that you need to know about me is that I am a Facebook. Marketplace scavenger. Okay. I am ruthless. I am cutthroat on a Facebook [00:02:00] marketplace. It is one of my favorite things to doom Scroll is the marketplace that is Facebook.
Uh, my biggest talent is actually, it's not even photography, it's design. I know design inside and out, and I can. Visualize a room with so much ease. I don't know what it is about my brain that this is what I do on vacations. Whenever we have Airbnbs, I literally just redesign spaces literally on the fly in my head, thinking, why in the hell would they put this couch here?
But it's just one of the skills. That I have, I know exactly what will look refined and elevated and how to kind of, I don't know, walk the line of mixing pieces from Facebook marketplace along with other higher end pieces too. So. I feel like the marketplace is like, it's like an endless flea market for me, but online [00:03:00] and it's looking, it's like looking for like a diamond in the rough or, uh, like needles in a haystack.
And I'm addicted to finding insane pieces that other people might pass up and turning them into like gorgeous pieces for my home. So the other day. Instead of doing what normal people do, like a target run or a Costco run, I did what for me is the equivalent of a drug run because I get so much of a high off of it.
But, I found a piece on Facebook marketplace that I about lost my absolute ever loving mind over. And even whenever I saw it, I, my eyes like bugged out of my head and I had to do a double take. I choked on my own. Inhale, I swear. I message the owner as. Fast as I possibly could. And I of course also [00:04:00] low-balled him an offer.
I paid $300 for this piece. He was asking for 500. I told him that I would give him $300 cash and I would be there by the end of the day. And he was like, yep, absolutely. So. The studio needs a round table, and I was looking for a round table instead of a rectangle, but this is a rectangle and I didn't even care.
I will make this work because it is the most iconic, the most branded piece of furniture that is so. Perfect for me that I've ever seen. It's actually so like not me. Whenever you see it, you're gonna be like, mm, really? Jody, that's what you're doing. And then you're gonna be like, no, actually that is so insanely her.
She had to, there was no choice. I had to make this purchase so. I strong armed my oldest son to hop into the car with me, which he hated. If you [00:05:00] follow me on Instagram, you know that my oldest is the grumpiest grump of teenage boys you have ever seen. He growls at me most times whenever I ask him to do something, but he's also so insanely funny and I die for that child, but he's not a child anymore.
But, he hated it. I didn't care. I told him to get in the car anyways. Uh, was it a questionable parenting move based on the area of town that we needed to pick this table up? Absa, freaking Lly. But he's also 18 now and I can't get arrested for child endangerment, so it's. Also maybe good, it's like a little life lesson, right?
It's time that he grows up a little bit and I show him what the real world looks like. That's what I think. And also first lesson of being a grown son is that whenever your mother says she needs you to pick up some furniture for her, you do it because you are now literally like I gave birth to you so that you could be my muscle.
Okay. No, but honestly it was actually so worth it. [00:06:00] I would do it again in a heartbeat because him and I actually had the best time together and he roasted me for the entire drive back. And I was cackling in laughter because my love language is a good roast or witty banter. And the fact that this grumpy teenage boy of mine is kind of finally.
Growing into that in his own way. He is hysterical. I die for him. But here's my point. This wasn't just a table. I had been hunting for the perfect piece to go into this back room in my studio because that's where I'm going to move my sales room because. This table needed to be so good because this is the table where I will sit with clients.
This is the table where decisions will be made. This is where people will say, yes, this is the table where lots and [00:07:00] lots and lots of money will change hands for years to come. So. That brings me up to yesterday and the table is literally in the back of my car. I can't even lift it out of there even if I wanted to.
But the flooring in the back of the studio isn't done yet anyways, so it is literally just. Chilling in the back of my car. So I was looking at the photos on Facebook Marketplace again and figuring out which way I want the table to sit because whenever you see the base of this thing, you will understand that it needs.
A moment. Okay. The base is perfection, and it's exactly what I wanted, even though I didn't even know that it was what I wanted. It's like I stumbled upon it and then it was like, oh, that's it. Okay. But so the top of. The table is marble it is heavier than my husband if I ever murdered him and tried to move his dead weight out into the desert.
Okay, super [00:08:00] heavy. Have I made my husband play dead to see if I could move him? Yes, I have. Have I ripped my duvet? Trying to do so again. Yes, I have. But that is not the point of this story. Even though it is really solid, beautiful marble and it's, it's pretty, it's not like marble marble. And it's not like.
Pretty enough, right? So a thought sort of like light bulb into my head, and I immediately texted my fabricator and asked him if he could get something else created quickly for me. And now, uh, right as soon as I finish recording this podcast right now, I am going to go over to Dal Tile and I'm going to pick out a new slab of marble and get this beautiful custom tabletop created that frankly.
That she [00:09:00] deserves. Okay. I will likely spend a couple thousand dollars just to swap out this marble, not because anyone else cares, not because a client would ever ask or a client would ever think that the marble needs to be like. Upgraded and not because it's necessary by any means, do I do anything because it's necessary?
No, absolutely not. But because I will sit at that table, I will sit at that table and I know the energy that I bring into that sales room matters. I want that table to feel rich. I want it to feel like abundance. I want it to feel like it's designed for money. I want it to feel intentional. I want it to feel also like.
A place where really big conversations and decisions for my business can happen. And this table, to [00:10:00] me, it isn't just furniture. It is literally where deals are going to be made. It is literally the surface where money will expand. In my business, I'm not just interested in showing up and hoping that someone pays my prices or hands me an opportunity. I wanna design the environment that holds the opportunity.
I wanna sit inside rooms that are made. Buy me for me. Now, you might not have a table that you're looking for or a studio add-on that you're designing, but you still have spaces inside of your business that need your best energy because deals will be closed because of those spaces, like because of your portfolio.
Credit cards will be swiped because of your website, and those are still spaces that you can control the energy of. F over the last couple of [00:11:00] weeks, I've been deep inside of photographer's businesses, not just casually like scrolling websites or glancing at their portfolios. I mean, I've been sitting inside of their websites, I've been reading every page, clicking every link, looking at galleries the way that a potential client would and tracing the path of their navigation of their website from.
I'm gonna say it, usually it's homepage and then confusion, and then to exit because these websites are not built the way that they should be built. All right? This was a deal that I offered during Black Friday and several photographers jumped at the chance for my eyes to be on their portfolios and on their websites.
And what they got from me was worth thousands of dollars because I didn't leave any stone unturned. These photographers came from different cities, different experience levels, some brand new, some [00:12:00] middle ground, some years in, some wildly talented, some still finding their footing a little bit, and. This mindset that I brought to my table is exactly what I brought to their online presence and their portfolios.
And I love this because you've gotta know that money flows more easily into spaces that are built to receive it. If your website feels chaotic, then your inquiries will feel like chaotic and all over the place. If your brand feels unsure, your clients are gonna feel unsure, not even your clients, your potential clients.
'cause if they're unsure, they're not becoming clients. Okay? If your systems are just kind of slap together and you don't really stay consistent there, then your income will will feel. Fragile, it'll feel slapped together. I don't want to ever sit at a wobbly table and ask people to [00:13:00] trust me with thousands of dollars.
I wanna sit at a table that says, without even having to say a word myself, that. You're safe here. You're taking care of here. Decisions are made here. Your value lives here, and that's why I'll spend the $2,000 on marble. That's why I'll tear something apart. That technically works, and that's why I'll renovate a room that nobody's even seeing yet because I'm not building for today.
I am building the place where money will stack for years, and this kind of thinking is a different level of power. Now, as I audited these websites, the same issues kept showing up again and again. And again, so I wanted to kind of wrap some of the pun intended for the Christmas season. I wanted to wrap some of the most common mistakes up that I'm seeing and kind of give them to you as a gift and [00:14:00] say them out loud here so that we can all build together.
So. Most photographers treat their website like a portfolio, like a place to showcase work, like as if it's kind of this di this digital business card, right? Like something, sometimes, unfortunately something that they ha that they feel like they have to have just so that they can say that they have it.
But. Your website's not just a gallery, it's not a business scrapbook. It is not a place for you to just throw up some photos and try to book some shoes. Your website is a decision making environment. It is a business meeting that happens without you. And also, I'm gonna say this too. Your website is equivalent to your Instagram feed.
Hands down, full stop. They u It used to be that it was like the website was like Big Daddy and the Instagram feed was just kind of like supplemental, and now it's not the case at [00:15:00] all. I run almost a hundred percent of my business from my Instagram. Very rarely do I get inquiries from my website. Okay, but my website is still there.
My website is still stunning. My website is still cohesive. My website still navigates the way that it needs to navigate for the clients who do go there in order to check my credibility in order to check, check my authority. But as I'm speaking about this, I wanna say that the portfolio pieces that I'm talking about for your website, they they translate straight over into your Instagram also.
Alright. Now some of these websites are actually making decisions harder instead of easier. And here's one of the patterns that I'm seeing. Photographers are really building websites kind of from like the inside. Out instead of the outside in, they're designing it from like their own taste rather than designing it from a space of [00:16:00] understanding what a luxury website actually looks like.
They're doing it based on like, oh, well I think that's cute. Oh, well I think that's Starling. Oh, look how pretty that is. And that's their own taste. That's not your brand though. That's you, how you would design your bedroom. Okay. So, and then whenever we're designing from our own taste, then we're designing also from insecurity, which kind of comes into the place of like, oh my God, I'm gonna throw all of these photos up here because like, I'm not really sure which one is gonna be the one that attracts the right buyer or attracts the right person, so let's just put 'em all up.
Right? That's how insecurity shows up on our website. You design from. Your own history and what you've already done in your business and what you maybe feel like is working for you four years ago, but now it's not working for you now, and that hinders you. There's this like emotional attachment to certain images or seasons or [00:17:00] phases of your work that you have to be able to look out with.
Discernment. Okay. Building a website like this, it's like selling a house or like trying to sell a house full of knickknacks and dated furniture just because it's sentimental to you. Rather than staging a house for the clients to be able to see theirselves inside of it and able, able to, or in order to see them being able to live there.
Okay? Buyers do not enter your website emotionally invested in you. They enter from a Google search, or they enter because they hit your links on your Instagram, okay? They're coming into your website with caution. They're coming in a little bit afraid of making the wrong decision, hiring the wrong photographer.
If they're hiring the wrong photographer, then they're afraid that they're gonna be disappointed, and the first [00:18:00] question that they are silently asking, surprisingly, is not. Is this photographer good? Are these photos good? The first question that they are asking is, will this person be able to create for me, because my family is different.
Because everyone thinks that their kids are crazier than the next. Everyone thinks that they're disorganized. Everyone thinks that they don't know how to style themselves or they don't know what they're doing because this is their first times. Clients think that they're special, even though we know they're not okay.
Even though we know all the kids are crazy, even though we know that a lot of them can't style their sessions, even though we know that every photo shoot feels like it has a little bit of chaos in it, especially whenever kids are involved, right? They think that they're special. We know that they're not, but that's okay.
But. They aren't sure if you can handle what they're bringing to the to the table and still make photos that are as [00:19:00] good as what is on your website, and most websites aren't answering that question clearly. The first and biggest mistake that I'm seeing is a complete. Lack of positioning, like I will go and I will land on a homepage, and I genuinely cannot tell who this photographer is taking photos for who they specialize in.
They photograph families and newborns and branding and pets and seniors and schools, and sometimes weddings and maybe boudoir, right? Their brand statement says something elusive. Usually in a cursive writing like. I dunno. Classic images meant to stop the hands of time, right? It gives, it gives the vibe that everyone is welcome.
I wear all the hats for everyone, and because everyone welcome is welcome, that means that. No one actually feels chosen. Luxury [00:20:00] clients do not want this level of options. They want certainty, they want specialty. They want to feel like you and your, that you have built your business for them. When your website says, I do everything, what the buyer hears is I'm not special, and I basically do mediocre work in every single genre and specialty.
Is what creates trust. Now I already know. I already can hear you being like, Jodi, you yourself don't niche down. And you're right, I don't niche to just families and I don't niche to just head shots or something like that. But I do niche down to women. I shoot solely for the needs of women in whatever stage of life that they are in, and I do it.
So insanely cohesively that even my branding and headshot [00:21:00] work can still live on my same website with without anyone ever feeling like I'm a jack of all trades. I have a common thread of allure and a little bit of sexiness, and a little bit of powerhouse, and a little bit of badassness woven through every single genre that I create inside of.
And if you are able to do that in your business, that's incredible. Bravo. Bravo hats off to you, and I just want you to continue listening with a grain of salt until I move on to the next point. Okay. Because I see photographers using words like timeless and authentic and emotional and real and candid, and those words, it's almost like they don't mean anything anymore.
They're not positioning, they're just filler words because you can't be all of those things and offer pet photos, okay? [00:22:00] You can't be all of those things and shoot. Newborns, like newborns and pets are not candid. They are not emotional, and if you're just filling in words to check a box that your website is done, then you are lacking true clarity.
Positioning is so crazy important and your positioning has to be clear. It has to say, this is who I serve. This is the experience I provide. This is why my clients choose me. And if someone cannot understand that within 0.05 seconds of landing on your homepage, they will leave, that is the amount of time that you have to convince someone that you are worth staying for on that.
Point oh five seconds, they will leave. Not because you're bad, but because if you confuse them, you lose them. The easiest way to know what your brand statements are is to listen to what your clients tell you after your photo shoots. Okay. As [00:23:00] you were walking to the car and you're just kind of shooting the shit about how great the shoot was, listen to what mom is saying.
Listen to what the kids are beaming about. Listen to what the dads say. Those statements tell you exactly what your superpower is. Put that on your website. Put that into your powerful brand statements. Okay. Now the second issue that I see everywhere, everywhere. This is an epidemic, you guys. It is uncurated portfolios.
Now I'm gonna say something that's gonna hurt your feelings. I'm gonna say it anyways. You need to call down 65% of the photos that are on your website right now, right here today, because they are either. Old, not branded, or they're sloppy. And how do I know this? Because you probably built your website four years ago and haven't been back to it since.[00:24:00]
Never ever on your website should you have everything that you've ever done. You should never use full galleries as your portfolio. It tells your clients that you don't have enough work to show, so you just have to link your full gallery. Never use photos just because your client liked the photos. Okay.
They, they are not, those are not facts that they are saying they are very much so like, I don't know emotionally obviously attached, but I wanted to say something like, they're drinking their own Kool-Aid. Okay. Never, ever, ever use photos just because the client said that they liked them. Never use photos just because you won a, you won an award for it.
Never use photos that are not edited cohesively. Never use photos that the clients have a horrible wardrobe. All right. Delete. Delete, delete. [00:25:00] Call ruthlessly. Call as if I'm going to see it. All right, because if you don't, you're diluting your work and you're truncating your bookings and your sales. Your portfolio is not a record of your career.
It is a sales tool. Luxury brands do not show everything. They show the right things. When I see a gallery with 50 images. That has inconsistent editing, mixed genres, no visual rhythm. What I hear as a potential client that I, or a potential like buyer that I'm acting like, is that your, your potential client is saying, I don't know what I'll get.
All right. This also goes for do not have a mix of vertical and horizontal images in your portfolio. You should only be using [00:26:00] vertical images because that is what works for websites. That is what works for Instagram. The minute that you're mixing in horizontals and you're getting photos that are kind of bouncing all over the place through your portfolio, it's gonna look messy.
And people aren't gonna like it. They don't know where their eyes need to land, and they're gonna bounce out of there. Okay? Uncertainty kills bookings. One strong image surrounded by 10 weak ones becomes a weak image. If you want higher end clients, your portfolio must reflect where are you, where you are going, not where you've been.
The third issue that I see a ton of is visual overwhelm, and I, I don't need to know your font preferences in order to tell you this. Okay? If your website feels busy, then I'm so sorry, but it also feels cheap. It [00:27:00] feels inexpensive if you've got too many fonts or frilly fonts or too many colors or too many photos fighting for attention or too many sections that are stacked on top of each other with no hierarchy of the client knowing where they're supposed to go, or too many buttons to go to, different pages to get lost in this like cyber maze of your photography business or.
My God, my God. Too many words. You're all using too many words that people will never read. Okay? And with all of this, too much and too many. It makes your website feel cheap. Luxury websites feel calm and calm, feels confident. White space needs to be used. White space is not empty. It is intentional.
Whenever I land on a [00:28:00] website and everything is screaming for attention, my nervous system shuts down, and whenever the nervous system shuts down, buyers do not move forward. Your website should feel like relief. They should like take a deep breath and let their shoulders down whenever they come to your website.
Which then brings me to the fourth issue, which is no clear process. Photographers assume that clients understand how this works and they don't. They don't know what full service means. They don't know what the word sitter means for a six month old in your first year collective, that can now finally sit up.
They don't know that they don't know how artwork works. They don't know what happens after they inquire. They don't know what your pricing is or anything like that. Right when, and I'm not saying [00:29:00] that you should have your pricing on your website. I'm just saying like they don't know anything about your business.
I do not have my pricing on my website. I know that that's a, I don't know, an argument, a tale as old as time for photographers. Right? An argument that is going to go on forever as to whether or not you should have pricing on your website or not. I do not. I have a reason behind that. I'm not going into that right now.
Okay. But. When there are, or when there's no process explained, then clients hesitate, right? Because they get confused. They don't know what this looks like, and that hesitation looks like an objection. Okay? It looks like, okay, I'll think about it, or I need to talk to my husband, or, I'm not sure yet, or, let me flag this.
I'll come back to it sometime. Those aren't really objections, they're just symptoms of. You not being clear. Your job is not to impress them. Your job is to guide them, but not with a thesis. Just [00:30:00] like I just said about the last problem that I was talking about. Not with too many words, not with a thesis.
Your process is not a novel. It is four sentences. You style, you shoot, you reveal, you install. That's it. That's your process. Write one to three good sentences about each one of those steps that truly details what's going to happen at each stage. And that's it clearly, that it clearly details what's going to happen, and that's it.
It. Now finally, the most alarming issue of all is that most of you do not have any sort of email capture. Now, I am not talking about some sort of email capture that is on the fourth page at the bottom of the About Me section that says, if you wanna know all the ins and outs of the studio, make sure that you, you know, sign up here.
That. [00:31:00] Sure. Yes. That is an email capture. I'm talking about a popup. Okay, I'm talking about a lead magnet. So those lead magnets aren't happening. Funnels aren't happening. There's no system built behind your website. If your website does not capture emails, then you are bleeding potential clients every single day.
Most visitors to your website are not ready to book Whenever they first land on your site and without an email, they simply disappear. This is the equivalent of somebody walking into say, I always talk about anthropology. If you're walking into anthropology, I talk about anthropology just because it's a really easy.
Store that you can browse around in and really enjoy yourself, but not actually ever buy anything, and you just wanna look and you just wanna smell, and you just wanna touch all of the textures and you wanna look at all the design. [00:32:00] Okay? A potential client, if they are walking, if they are coming to your website and you don't have some sort of email capture, you don't have some sort of lead magnet, then what they're basically doing is walking through your store.
And not a single sales associate is coming out from the back of the store, okay? Not a single person is coming out and saying, hi, can I help you? Hi, can I put that in the dressing room for you? Not a single person is coming out to try to actually close the deal. That's what you're doing. If your website does not have the email capture, a lead magnet is not optional.
If you want your website to convert. It is the engine of your entire marketing ecosystem. A lead magnet is a high value, instantly downloadable resource offered in exchange for a visitor's email address, and it is the single most [00:33:00] effective way to turn casual browsers into warm leads that you can actually nurture without a lead magnet.
Every person who lands on your site and isn't ready to book that day simply disappears. They're not coming back. Okay? And they're also taking their money with them. A great lead magnet drives curiosity. Drives desire. It solves an immediate pain point, which is why the title of your lead magnet must feel like it's a little bit of clickbait in a good way.
Okay. It must be irresistible. It must be specific, and it must be impossible to ignore whenever somebody opts in for that lead magnet Email takes over as your most powerful conversion tool because unlike social media, which social media is like as if you. All like, I don't know if you, if you go hang out in a bar [00:34:00] and all of your potential clients are there and you're sort of bebopping around, like just saying hi to each other, tapping each other on the shoulder, like a little double tap, right?
That social media email reaches people directly. Email is like knocking on a person's front door and they let you into their home, okay? It reaches people, it builds trust. It reinforces your authority, and it guides them step by step towards booking. Lead gen through email is paramount in today's market because attention spans are really short and competition is endless.
And the photographers who win aren't the ones who are posting the most. They're the ones who are posting with strategy. To capture a lead. They're the ones that are nurturing the relationship. They're the ones that are closing the sale through a strategically designed funnel that begins the moment that somebody downloads that lead magnet.[00:35:00]
A strong lead magnet drops your clients directly into a nurture funnel that continues the conversation for you. Educating them, building that connection, and positioning you as the only logical like choice. Before they ever even start to inquire with anyone else, this automated sequence elevates your authority.
It raises your perceived value, and it warms and primes clients so that by the time they reach out, they're already trusting your process and they are significantly. More ready to invest. So before the new year starts, before you write your goals, before we get all into resolutions, before you plan content, before you tell yourself, this year's gonna be different, I want you to clean house.
I want you to clarify your specialty. I want you to cut your portfolio in [00:36:00] half, simplify your design, explain your process, capture leads, and build one nurture sequence. I want you to fix the foundation this year because whenever the foundation is right, everything else gets easier, marketing gets easier, pricing gets easier, your confidence grows and bookings stop feeling like.
You just kind of lucked upon them. Okay? Now these photographers, they got me in their portfolios. I was marking red Xs on everything that they should or shouldn't be having on their website, or should or shouldn't be posting. I built them brand compasses to pass every single one of their photos through before it goes to a website, before it goes to a post, before it goes to a blog, before it goes anywhere.
And I gave them all of these lead magnet topics and titles and action items to conquer. And we [00:37:00] slashed through their websites with. Virtual machetes, okay? You don't have that in your corner, so I need you to work extra hard to do this work and get yourself set up because 2026 is right around the corner, and I want you to be ready for it.
That's it for today. You guys keep your tits up and your websites curated. Okay, 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, [00:38:00] friends.
