Intro: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the Poser's 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 Jodi, 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, posers. I just have to say that I'm already so obsessed with this space that we're creating and Quite frankly, I just love it that you're here. So thank you for showing up here with me today You know what? Before we do any sort of work at all, we need to discuss a few matters that are of the utmost importance.
Most importantly, in my life right now, I am [00:01:00] in the middle of a home renovation. Now, if you are not following along on Instagram with these renovations, honestly, what are you doing with your life? I'm kidding, but you should be because, Well, I'm fun, of course, but add fun and interior design to anything and honestly, I am sitting, I am sat, I am watching, I am listening.
My algorithm literally is nothing but DIY projects, mostly of before and afters because I absolutely love them. In all honesty, the absolute chokehold that these people have, these people who are attempting these projects, the way they have me is honestly a little bit scary because I genuinely think that somebody could say that they want to bury a body in the desert and I'd be like, okay but first are we gonna build a box out of white oak and do I get to watch you sand it and stain it and do I get to watch you screw those genius little holes that miter the [00:02:00] corners together and I'd be like, mm.
Say less. Okay, what kind of support do you need from me? Where are we meeting? Can I film for you? That's my level of obsession. Okay. So anyways, I am deep into this renovation, which Have claimed up one side and down the other of the internet that I love to do home renovations like this I think this This is my third huge renovation, fourth because I kind of did a half one before, but that one doesn't really count.
So this is my third full time of like gutting and renovating a house but I claim all over the internet that I love it, but honestly, do I, do I really? Because yesterday just kind of broke me. Between hemorrhaging money, starting this podcast, second guessing all of my design choices, and honestly feeling like my home has been aesthetically staged by my three teenage boys.
All of that combined with just also just normal life, like it is sending me. I [00:03:00] feel so raw and so vulnerable to the world that the plumbing leak that happened yesterday morning, and then yesterday in the afternoon, I came home to my cabinets being painted and I was over the moon, I'm obsessed with the paint colors on the cabinets.
But then I found out that the painters actually cracked. countertop. So between those things happening, I honestly am really close to a 72 hour hold. Like my brain literally went to like, okay, well, what does that entail? Like, is there a bed? Is there food?
Like, can I bring a book? Whenever a hour hold starts to sound enticing, that's when we really know that we've turned a corner in life. I genuinely feel like there should be an app for requesting a 5150. Like, put it right next to DoorDash Maybe the marketing could just be like, a quick stint of mental rehab at your fingertips.
Okay, anyways, uh, enough about how [00:04:00] unstable I am. So, let's dive into me teaching you things, yeah? That doesn't make sense, but I guess we can all just be a little unhinged together because honestly that unhinging is what makes It's the Living Breathing Queens that we are. We can, you know, take a few kicks, take a few punches, knock us down, and it's like we're all just gonna get back up and keep on going, yeah?
Except that sounds awful, and I would really like to just lay down for a little while too. maybe kick me again, knock me out for a second because there's nothing like, I don't know, a little concussion just to get me a break around here. All right. In all seriousness, , we are going to piggyback onto what we were talking about in the last episode because there is nothing that I hate more in regards to education than vagueness.
I'm not sure that [00:05:00] vagueness is a word, but I don't care. We're going to roll with it because honestly, I'm a creative and the dictionary just, it wasn't made for me, you know, and I'm too lazy. I'm not going to look it up. So, we'll call this vagueucation. Vague education. Get it? Get it? Okay. Anyways, uh, I hate a vague idea and I feel like what I pitched to you, as if I'm a salesperson just selling this stuff all over here, drink my Kool Aid.
What I, what I spoke about in the last episode, I do feel like there's a little bit of vagueness there of, you know, be audacious, you know, choose audacity and this idea that if you're doing those things then your business is just going to take off and honestly that sounds like a bunch of smoke and mirrors, right?
And I promised you no smoke and mirrors here. So do I think that there's a place for, you know, the messaging that we had in the last episode? Yes. 100%. I think that there needs to be motivation in the [00:06:00] world. I think there needs to be inspiration in the world. I think to have somebody. That you are looking at saying like, oh, how do they run their business?
What kind of decisions are they making? How do they approach these things? I think that's incredibly important, but I also know that whenever you're trying to implement these sort of vague messages, it can become overwhelmingly paralyzing at the same time because you're not quite sure, when. Do you take a step towards audacity?
how does it feel whenever you're making the right decision versus when you've stepped into something and you've been a little too audacious? Maybe. Trust me. I've been there far too many times. Okay, but how do we know when and where to be audacious inside of our business? We need action steps. We need a plan.
I love a plan. Okay, we need to utilize these kinds of ideas into strategy and not just taking like willy nilly stabs at it. if we're, if we're taking those sort of like stabs at it and not really knowing how it's impacting our business, then we'll never know if we're [00:07:00] making the right choices. And one of the most important things that you have to be able to do inside of your business is.
Measure those efforts and that makes me sound a little bit like a scientist and you know what I'm a psychologist So doing these sort of like little research projects inside of your business I mean, it's literally the same as like the scientific process, right? Like you have a hypothesis You test out a few theories and then you want to be able to measure to see whether or not they actually impacted your business in the way that, uh, you intended for them to.
Alright, so being able to measure all of this is so incredibly important. So I want to take the message that we had from last episode. We're going to put in some action steps today. And honestly, what I have in store for you today is It's pretty mind blowing and it's something that really, really, really helped in my business.
And we are going to dive right into it right now. We are going to talk about the audacity [00:08:00] to create your own demand. All right, here we go. Tits up, ears open. We are diving in. What if I said that backwards on accident? Like, tits open, ears up. That would be fun. I want you to fill in the blank on this sentence. Okay? Think this over for a second. I'm not booking the amount of clients I desire because Fill in that blank.
What's coming up for you? Take a second, mull that over, just like you would if you were, I don't know, downing your first sip of a dirty martini. Or, think about it this way, maybe the question's the opposite. Jodi, why am I not booking more, in general, Okay, well, I just need to tell you, it is your lucky goddamn day.
Alright? Because no matter if a key problem actually popped up for you and you're thinking that you know what the answer is, or if you're not able to [00:09:00] pinpoint a clear problem, the answer to figuring out the problem is exactly the same. The answer to this is that you're not creating your own demand.
Alright? So, a lot of times in an effort to be viewed as As, I don't know, quote unquote, a good photographer, many photographers start to create in the same way, they market in the same way, they talk in the same way, and in doing so, you're diluting your brand, you're diluting your voice, your website messaging, your price, and in general, all around overall presence, right?
And so then what happens? You become part of the noise instead of standing apart from it. And I'm here to tell you that there is zero demand inside of the noise, alright? Demand is created whenever you're in a place that you have created space in between [00:10:00] you and the pack. Okay, you dive into your value deeper when you set yourself apart because what you can offer differently than others is exactly what raises your value.
Alright, I want to give an example here because I want to make sure that we are like, in sync with each other. I, I'm laughing literally because I start to see like in sync dancers in my head. Okay, but I want to be on the same page with you. So let's think about Utah. All right, Utah.
The biggest situation in Utah that is happening is that it is an insanely saturated market. I know this because I've talked to a lot of photographers in Utah and a lot of photographers in Utah complain that they don't feel like they can raise their prices because Utah has a slew of photographers. And it's a slew of photographers who do it all, right?
Babies, families, weddings, [00:11:00] seniors, you name it. That, like, mom with a camera mentality is so strong there. So, if we're thinking about this idea of creating demand, then in Utah where that mentality is, it's so saturated with the photographers, the prices are low, everybody is kind of doing the same thing, then you would hold more value inside of that space.
If you were to really niche down and really become super laser focused, specific and if Say you were maybe like a dark and moody photographer that specialize in photographing mountain weddings, right? You would really set yourself apart and become like the end all be all for that one specific niche because Other photographers in Utah are all kind of doing it the same and in the same kind of way, right?
So that's an example. If you were doing that in Utah, your calendar would [00:12:00] be filled Because you're no longer fighting against the masses, All right, so Knowing this with that example I can already hear what your next question is rolling around in your head and you're thinking about your market and you're thinking about what I just said and you're like but What do I do whenever I don't feel like there's anything that sets me apart?
Or, what if you're in a market where, you yourself really do love light and airy romantic wedding images, but that's what everybody else in your space is creating too. So, get that. I understand it's sometimes really hard. To step outside of yourself and look at your business not as an extension of your own right arm with your camera attached and to really look at it as this complete body and entity that is moving completely on its own.
Alright, so, hang tight with me because I'm gonna walk you through something really incredible in just a second. Alright, so we need to [00:13:00] talk about red oceans versus blue oceans. And this, I am not a genius, I like to think that I am sometimes, but this is not something that I've come up with. You can read all about this, it's the authors of the Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim and Renee Mabourne.
I'm not sure if I'm saying that name correctly, I hope that I am. These two authors, they talk about two types of markets, the red oceans and the blue oceans. Red oceans are where most businesses exist, okay? It's known in the market space, , it's bloody in there, right? And you can always remember a blood ocean, or I mean a red ocean because it's bloody.
Because everyone is fighting. Over the same clients, they're fighting over the same demand and the same like tired strategies and inside of a red ocean, you are constantly competing, constantly trying to undercut pricing. You're trying to convince people that your version of the same exact thing. is slightly [00:14:00] better than the other guy's version.
And it's exhausting, and it's kind of soul sucking, and it's kind of the worst, right? But, honestly, the worst thing that it does is that it caps your potential because you're playing in somebody else's game. So on the other hand, a blue ocean. Blue oceans are untapped, they're uncontested, they are free market spaces.
These are the places where you create your own demand rather than fighting over an existing demand. Okay, inside of a blue ocean there is no comparison shopping because what you offer isn't being offered in the same way anywhere else. you get to set the rules, you get to control the value, and best of all, you make the competition irrelevant to what you're doing.
if you're sitting in a red ocean right now and you're struggling to stand out and feeling like you're just another photographer in another oversaturated market, I need you to sit up, I need you to take [00:15:00] notes, and I need you to prepare to quite literally burn down some parts of your business that isn't working for you.
Alright, but don't worry. Just like all, look at this little segue, I was going to say, don't worry, just like all of the DIY projects that I love to watch and listen to on my social media, the rebuild is going to be even better. Alright? Okay, so we need to talk about positioning. We're going to position your business to stand out.
Positioning is the place that your brand holds in your customer's mind against its competition. Okay? And in order to figure out your positioning, here's what you're going to do. You're going to imagine what your clients would say when they are pitching you to their friends. Okay? And you have maybe even heard your clients say these things because they'll say to you, like, oh yeah, I told my friend about you and I told him this and this and this, whatever.
So think about those things. Or imagine that your clients are [00:16:00] telling their friends about you. Are they saying, Oh yeah, she's great. You get so many photos and it's, it's so cheap. It's the best. Or are they saying like, well yeah, the photos are fine, but like you only need one good one, right? Or are they saying, well, you know, you get what you pay for, so you can't expect too much.
Or do they say, she's not cheap. But she's the best, so we pay it anyway. And her work is worth every penny. Alright, so figuring out that positioning is really important. Now, do I think, a little, uh, spoiler alert, a lot of my clients say that last one, right? She's not cheap. But she's the best, and so we're gonna pay it anyways, right?
Do my clients say that because I'm literally the best photographer? I mean, where there's smoke, there's fire, right? [00:17:00] I'm kidding. I would love to think that, but no, we obviously know that. I'm not the best photographer. Even the best photographers that are on all the best photographer lists, they're not the best photographers.
Even though I think my work is beautiful and their work is beautiful, right? There's no such thing as the best. That's arbitrary. It's a social construct that can't even be defined because being the best in anything creative is subjective to the viewer. And the only person that you need.
So, what we're going to do is we're going to find your blue ocean. Alright, so in the Blue Ocean Strategy, the authors suggest an exercise to plot out the, like, key marketing points in your industry and determine where you can create demand by doing the exact opposite of your competition. Alright, [00:18:00] here's how you're going to do it.
We're going to actually graph this out. Okay, so So, pull out your notebook. If you're driving and listening to this, please do not pull out a notebook. But please do keep listening, and just know that you need to, I don't know, have a little bit of homework. Or, uh, do all of this whenever you get back to your desk soon.
Okay, so now that you've got your notebook out, we're gonna draw a normal graph. Not like a full cross graph, but just one that has like an x axis and a y axis. I'm sorry. This is a geometry podcast now. How do I explain this? We're draw, we're drawing, we're driving, we're drawing the, uh, the left side and the bottom of a square and that's it.
Does that make sense? All right. So
along the bottom, I want you to choose five common industry marketing points. Alright, these can be any five that you find to be the most important, such as price social media [00:19:00] presence, whether or not you deliver all of the digitals, or if you're shoot and burn, If you're light and airy and the market is dark and moody whether or not you keep up a blog, whether or not you have a YouTube channel, like anything like that, okay?
I want you to pay special attention to the things that you are doing inside of your business too. Alright? Not necessarily just what your industry is doing or what your market is doing, but what you're doing. Like for me. I'm going to make sure that I I'm going to include price because obviously that's a differentiator for me, uh, the fact that I have a studio, brand identity, social media presence, and authority, right?
Those are my five key marketing points that drive my business. All right. So. If you don't know this answer, that's totally okay. Just use these five that I'm about to give you because they're going to give you kind of, I don't know, common marketing points across all markets. [00:20:00] Alright, so use price, niche.
I say light and airy because I really do think even though it's not really a marketing point, the debate between light and airy and dark and moody really is an indicating factor for clients when they're choosing the photographer and the, and the. style of photography that they like. So I would include it because it's something that's going to I don't know, be a little bit polarizing on that.
So price, niche, light and airy or dark and moody, whichever one you want to use social media and authority. Okay. Those will just be the five common ones that you can start with. All right. And once we go through this little exercise, you'll understand it more, and then you'll be like, Oh, okay, I get it, and you can even do more points.
Okay? So, we're just thinking of the key ways that marketing happens. How do people find out about you? Do you do a great job of, like, having really amazing relationships with other vendors in town? Uh, things like that. Put that on your chart. Alright? Maybe, like, do you see others that are really, like, [00:21:00] slammin and jammin with their social media, but you're kind of more like, I don't know, a swing and a miss in that department?
Put that on your chart, too. Okay? Alright, so now, on the left side of your chart, you're going to do Zero at the axis, right? And then up to a one and then up to a two and keep going until you get to five, right? So on the top left side of your chart, you have the number five and it goes down four, three, two, one, zero.
Okay. And then along the bottom, you have plotted and named your five areas of marketing that are dominant in your area. Now, using this, the one through five, it's like a Likert scale, right? We are going to assess your local market with a five being like everybody's doing it, or a zero or a one being like nobody's really doing it.
Okay, so now I get two different colors of pens or like a pen and a pencil or anything. You can even just do one more bold and one lighter. It doesn't really matter. Anything that's just going to [00:22:00] show that one plot line will represent the market and one will represent your business. Now You're going to go into your graph and look at your very first point of marketing.
And I'm going to guess that you did price first, as you should, because price drives a lot of the decision making power for clients, right? So, for your market as a whole, where does pricing fall? For the market, are you in New York? And wedding photography across the board is astronomically expensive? Then plot that a five.
Are you in Utah, where everyone's gouging the next because the market is so saturated that it drives the prices super low? If so, plot pricing as a one or a zero. Okay? If you're like, I don't know, say Nashville, right? Where pricing is maybe mid tier for the most part, but there's some that are killing it super high and there's some that are like gouging low too, mark that in the middle at like a three.
Okay, or maybe even a four because [00:23:00] Nashville, they're a little bougie these days. All right, so Now, from there, once you've marked that one, move on to your next marketing point. And we'll do that, we'll do it for mine as the example, right? Mine is a studio. Okay? So having a studio is a game changer in my area because not a lot of people have it.
So for my market, I would label it as a one or two because not a lot of people are doing it. Okay? Now keep going across the board on this. And connect the dots that you've made to create a line graph that it's going to sort of look like a little heartbeat Doppler, right? Going up and down. Alright, so then now that you have your market finished, then pick up the other color pen and we're going to plot your line for your business.
Alright, so using my example again, I would have plotted my market in the mid to low range for pricing, okay? But I'm now going to think of just my own business. And I'm going to plot my point for [00:24:00] pricing as a five because I'm one of, if not the highest in my class. Market. Okay. So my next market point being the studio.
I'm going to mark the industry as a one or two, but I'd mark for my own business as a five because not only do I have a studio, but I also have a gorgeous studio and I've designed it to not only give like the studio look, but it also has like complete brand recognition to the unique images that only I can create in my market.
Okay. If I had a standard, Okay. Blank wall studio that anybody else could like replicate a look that I was doing then I might give it like a three and a half Or a four or something like that, but I'm gonna give it a five because my studio is a really Strong piece of my marketing. Okay all right, and then I do the next things within my within my list of marketing points like brand identity social media presence and authority Right?
So we're thinking, like, do other [00:25:00] photographers in the area really have, like, a great lock on their brand awareness, and then how does my business measure up to that? How does my market fare whenever it comes to social media presence, and where do I fall in that same arena? Okay? Are others in my industry really killing the game by showing, like, their authority and their niche, and am I doing the same thing, or am I the opposite?
That's what we're doing with every single one of these points. Alright? So you get it. a quick thought here if you get the hang of this and you want to plot 10 points, do it. You know, and if you know that there's something really critical that sets you apart from the masses that you do differently than someone else, plot that too.
Cause, like for me, I knew that adding an understanding of psychology and human behavior to my work would immediately set me apart. I knew that being audacious enough to lean into persuasion and influence would elevate my brand and create demand instead of chasing it. So, those ideas are wrapped up into my social media presence and the [00:26:00] authority measure for me.
Okay? It's important that you're noting these key things because what you're going to do next is you're going to look at your graph. And what you've created here is a literal roadmap of how to run your marketing and where to lean in to show a different set of skills. And you're also showing these like really unique places of value.
If you found on your chart that your market really kills it at social media, but you can't post a reel to save your life, right? That does not mean that your business will sink just because you're not doing the same thing as everybody else. In fact, it means the exact opposite. It means that you have the entire market in other areas.
So maybe you're an incredible writer. And you're really good at keeping up a daily or a weekly blog post. You are going to put so much of your marketing power into growing an email list and driving readers to your [00:27:00] blog. And then on your blog, you're going to accentuate the fact that you are not here to sing and dance for your supper, that you're here to tell real love stories and these love stories are going to be woven with , deep authenticity, right?
If you are a lover of light and airy, but so is the rest of your market and you don't feel like you have a way to differentiate here. It's okay, because you're going to find a different value that you can offer that sets you apart in a different marketing point. Alright. In fact, in that same example that I just gave you, you'd be exactly like me.
I love light and airy. I love luminous images, but my work stands out differently than other photographers in my industry because I offer style services to my clients and everybody is styled according to the idea of representing my brand. Or I know that even if my images look similar to others, I'm so good at running like a social media presence that my work is going to be recognized because I've worked so hard to grow my audience and let [00:28:00] them see the behind the scenes of my business.
so some final thoughts on this. These plot points show you the exact areas within your business that you know that you need to drill deeper. Whenever your industry is doing one thing and you're doing the exact opposite, those are your audacious points. That is where you can go, and you can drill down, and you can live, and you create all of your content, and all of your marketing efforts are pushed towards that thing that separates you.
Alright, so. I'm going to give you the list of mine. Pricing. I'm audaciously high in my industry because my brand speaks to luxury and I create demand across clients who want a piece of what I'm creating and they'll spend the money in order to have it. Right? With my studio, I chose audacity whenever I abruptly left the wedding industry that wasn't fulfilling to me anymore.
I blew through my bank account and my [00:29:00] savings account to open this studio that I had absolutely no idea how to run. And I made sure that while I was doing it, my clients came along for the ride and they watched me build something brand new. All right. With brand identity, I low key demand that my clients fit the look and vibe of JN Photography.
Now, they aren't going to get kicked out of the Cool Kid Club if they don't do it, but I make such a big deal out of the style of my brand that clients literally want that look. They want what I create, specifically. With my social media presence, it is hard. to show up and share your life. It is not for the weak and I show up almost every single day to show what's going on in my life and in my business and in doing so it has built an incredible community and a stream of clients into my business.
And then my last point is authority. I had the audacity to sit here and [00:30:00] speak on this today, literally right here, me and you. I had the audacity to start a podcast. I had the audacity to create the posing method. I show my audience of clients every single day. That I am not a fair weather photographer.
This is my career. I'm the CEO of a multi six figure brand. This has built an insane amount of trust that people are willing to pay for whenever they're hiring somebody to document their lives. I have created my own demand by honing in on these core things inside of my business and completely turning my head away from other things that I know that I wouldn't be able to do.
And maybe there's other people in my industry who are doing them and they're doing them so well and they are able to gain all of the clients that that attracts. But I'm okay with knowing that those things aren't for me. I don't write a blog. I have a really hard time to committing to doing like a weekly [00:31:00] newsletter.
I don't post to my feed regularly. My work is pretty, but I don't feel as though I could ever be relevant in today's market and today's style, If I focused on trying to do these things because other photographers were doing them, I would dilute my efforts in the five key things that I built my business on.
And by doing that, I would allow myself to be mediocre by trying to blend in by making sure that I was doing what everybody else was doing. See how that works? So we have two choices. Stay in the red ocean, clawing your way through competition, or step into the blue ocean and create demand by owning what makes you different.
You have to have the audacity to ask for what you want, demand what you're worth, and most importantly, go through exercises like this so you know where you [00:32:00] never have to apologize for doing exactly what your business needs and knowing exactly who you are as the CEO of your business. Until next time, Posers.
Bye for now.
Outro: Okay, so that is a wrap on this episode of the Poser's 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, stay bold, stay messy, and don't let the bullshit win. Tits up, ears open, and go build something incredible. Bye for now, friends.
