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, and welcome back to another episode of the Posers Podcast. I am so excited to jump into today's episode with you because I kind of feel like the last couple of weeks were just like a lot of talk about resolutions, a lot of talks about, or not resolutions that we're not setting, but goal setting and talking about the word of the year and [00:01:00] what our dreams are and what we're hoping for and what we're wishing for. And now today I am like, okay, we're gonna stop hoping, we're gonna start. Stop wishing we're gonna start doing. This is the Home Depot now. All right.
I'm the Home Depot of Photography podcast. I can't handle myself. Alright, so. Even though I'm starting off with some, with some jokes and some giggles, obviously today is actually gonna sound a lot more like a keynote than a podcast because I am not here to casually chat about anything. I'm not here to mess around.
I am here to talk about. Pricing, and I am not here to leave any kind of excuse in your head about your pricing and about the economy in regards to your pricing or your area or your market, or even the claim that you think that your clients just [00:02:00] want the digitals. I am coming in today and I am. I am leaving no crumbs, like the youths would say.
All right. Uh, it's gonna be backed up by research, you know, it's gonna be backed up by psychology, so. If you come out of this episode thinking that it's still okay to use the pricing model that I'm going to talk about today, then you'll at least know that it is your own mental block that you need to work on and not the actual, you know, economy or your client tell or anything like that.
This might even ruffle some feathers, and I'm. Okay with that because somebody needs to say it because I honestly know that photographers are being duped by this model of pricing. It's being taught as if it's luxury, as if it's [00:03:00] incentivizing products. I mean, technically it is incentivizing products, but we're gonna get into all of that.
But it's, it's claiming as if the incentivization, not sure if that's a word, but. The incentivizing of the products is the goal that we should be doing, and the only goal that we should be working towards inside of our business anyways, if that got confusing, I'm gonna explain it in a second, but this method is actually wrapped in scarcity and the money blocks of whoever it is that created this method.
They need to be working on those and all of that scarcity. And these money blocks have actually been kind of like tied up and wrapped up in a cute little bow and then handed to you without anyone dissecting it. From an actual buying psychology standpoint, photographers are being taught to build sales models [00:04:00] that even if unintentionally, or even if.
Accidentally, these sales models are actually destroying the perceived value that you've worked for in your business, and they are devaluing the very thing that is actually the only irreplaceable piece of intellectual property that your business has, which obviously is your photos. It's the digital images.
And this model has cast the digital images only client as if they are the worst kind of client to have the digital images. Only client has been branded by the worst PR team ever, and I'm going to prove to you that they actually didn't deserve it. Okay? They actually don't deserve it. But here's the issue.
[00:05:00] Actually, hold on, let me, let me tell you what I'm gonna do. Not only to this week, but next week also, there's two main models, pricing models that I hear photographers talk about constantly. One of them is an IPS model, even though it sucks, but. The other one is an IPS adjacent. It's the IPS like scapegoat.
It's the ipss like ugly cousin. Okay. But people wanna claim that they do IPS ish and that does not exist. Okay. But what we're gonna talk today, talk about today is the one that is the IPS model, the the suckier version of it. All right. I'm going to rip this one apart today, and then I'm going to rip the other one apart in next week's episode.
All right. This first sales model that I'm going to talk about, I'm gonna call it the Sliding Scale [00:06:00] Discount model. And if the, if the word discount is in the actual title, then you know that there's already a problem, but. I don't know if this model actually has a title or has a name. I've heard this being referred to as value-based pricing.
I think honestly, it's too confusing for me to understand how this is value-based, so it might very well be that value-based pricing is something completely different. Who knows? Either way. Let me just explain what this pricing model is and you'll know if this is what you're implementing inside of your business.
The sliding scale discount model is where like you have a session fee and then the clients come in, they do the session with you, and then they're coming back and they're having their sales meeting, their proofing meeting or whatever, and inside of your pricing model, you have it so that the clients could actually purchase the [00:07:00] whole entire gallery of images.
That itself is not the problem, but. The digital start off at like a set price. Say the whole digital gallery costs like $700 or something if they wanted to buy it straight out. I've heard some people doing it 500. I've heard some people saying 900 and honestly. The people who have told me that they're doing it at 900, they've actually told me that they keep it intentionally below a thousand dollars so that they don't scare their clients.
And that right there is a crazy mindset to have that's people pleasing in its most toxic form. That is saying, I'm gonna keep this price small enough so that it doesn't scare anybody, so that people don't get mad at me so that people still like me. All right. Mind you, a typical gallery of images is, I mean, everybody is probably has a different number, but typically I would probably say 70 to 90 photos for a [00:08:00] family session is a typical gallery of images.
So if you are selling. Your entire digital gallery for $500, then that means you're charging about $5 per photo. $5 and 50 cents per photo. $5, let me say that again. $5 and 50 cents for an image that you painstakingly created and poured hours of love into. So that means that you. As a professional photographer, as somebody who creates literal art, as somebody who probably is creating the most beautiful galleries of images for your clients, that means that you couldn't sell a photo and buy a happy meal with your earnings.
Okay? I need to cool myself off because I'm getting heated just talking about this. I'm getting heated because this makes [00:09:00] me so mad that this is actually being taught. I don't think that anybody ever breaks it down like this. I don't think that anybody's realizing what's actually happening inside this model and how much photographers are throwing their work away for almost pennies.
But the crazy part is, is that this model, it gets even worse. So. In this model, the clients are guided to buy physical products, right? But as they do, I mean, which I obviously do too, that's a sales system. But inside of this model, as they are guided through the process of buying these PHY physical products, the digitals get cheaper and it.
Yeah, I know. If the client hits the top tier of the product ladder that you want them to get to, [00:10:00] then the digitals are free. Free. Like, you've gotta be kidding me here. So this means that when you do your job at selling products, well then you actually get penalized. So if your client spends, let's say, $2,000 on products, which you then have cost of goods sold and tax on, so you really actually profit about $1,200 on.
Then somehow, some way the value of the digital images just poof, like out of thin air it vanishes. So that 500, 700, $900, whatever you're saying at the beginning, is the digital only price all of the sudden. Now the digitals don't have that value anymore, and now you don't have that worth anymore. So now you have to give up that 500, 700, 900, whatever that number is for you.
You have to give up [00:11:00] that money because the clients are buying products. So it's like you have to exchange the 900. For the 1200 of actual profit that you're gonna make. 'cause the 900 would've been straight profit too. I mean, almost. You get what I mean. But the 900 would've been straight profit because there's no cost of goods sold.
So you're exchanging the 900 for the 1200 instead of collecting the 900 plus the 1200. So you've essentially capped your profit at 1200 because the clients are simply. They're simply shopping and, and putting enough products in their cart, basically. I mean, not cart obviously, because you're sitting there in a sales room with them, but you get what I mean.
Like they're shopping to hit that $1,200 number or the, the $2,000 number and then the 1200 of what you actually profit. You get what I'm saying? Okay. But so they're shopping to hit that top tier. [00:12:00] So that they can get the digital files, because the digital images, that's actually the thing that was most valuable to them to begin with.
So what this is actually doing is punishing you and it's, it's punishing the thing that cannot be replaced. Your intellectual property, your digitals are the only true irreplaceable asset in this equation because. Obviously like we want our clients to be doing custom framing with us, but some of them don't want that.
Some of them don't value that, and they can just as easily get a frame somewhere else. Frames can be sourced anywhere. Obviously they could go to Michael's, they could get it custom framed there for cheaper than what we're gonna do in our studios. They can go to Target, they can go to Walmart, they can order frames from Amazon, they can order frames.
From anywhere. Granted, I understand there's a whole entire sales script [00:13:00] behind that. I understand that you're gonna educate them on why custom framing is better, but no matter what the framing isn't something that's irreplaceable. Inside of this equation, albums can be designed and ordered on almost every corner of the internet.
The market is flooded with ways that people can take their digital images and make something pretty. But that finished image that was created by you, created by your artistic eye, created by your direction, your lighting, your editing, everything, your ability, right, to make these people look beautiful and iconic inside of these images, that is the part that they cannot get from Target.
So whenever you say. Buy enough physical product and I will discount or give away the digitals. You are teaching your client the exact opposite of luxury [00:14:00] value. You are saying that the core product, the main thing that you are known for, you are a photographer who produces photos. So the, you're saying that the core product is negotiable.
You've just put your photos on the beaches of Mexico. Right, and you can barter a price, you can negotiate that because if they spend this much now they're worth this much. And then if they spend this much now, they're worth nothing. Luxury brands do not do this. Luxury brands protect their icons just like an Hermes protects.
Its Birkin. Okay. Hermes is a textbook example of a brand that is built on controlled distribution and exclusivity and craftsmanship, and not discounting that. This is literally the difference between Costco psychology and Hermes psychology. [00:15:00] Costco says, buy more, save more. That's, that's what this model is actually doing.
The more you buy over here on the product side, the more you're gonna save over here on the digital side. But luxury says, or Hermes says, or Dior says, or YSL says, you step into our store and you are going to buy what you're going to buy. If you buy three bags, they're gonna cost for three bags. If you buy six bags, they're gonna cost the amount for six bags because the more you spend.
Is the more status you have. Okay. Also, if you walked into Dior, which is a brand that is known for so many gorgeous designs with their shoes and with their bags and with their clothing, and with even their home goods, everything. Dior is stunning, but this is as if you walk into Dior. [00:16:00] And they say to you, Hey, we're implementing a new pricing structure here, and the more perfume you buy, which is our, which is not one of their iconic pieces, but the more perfume you buy, the cheaper will make the bag that you want, which is one of their icon pieces.
Okay? So again, if they, if you go into a Dior and you say, and they say to you. The more perfume move, buy the cheaper. We'll make the bag. Three things would happen inside of your head. Three psychological reactions would have. Number one, you would assume that the bag is not the main value, and you would question this.
You'd be like, wait, but what? But hold on. I thought that the bag was like the thing that I wanted, and you're gonna cause confusion inside of that client's brain. Okay. And then, or inside of your brain, sorry, we're talking about you walking into Dior, right? [00:17:00] So you're gonna assume that the bag is not the main value anymore because Dior has treated the bag as if it's the giveaway, as if it's the option for discount, as if it's the thing that they're gonna give away as the incentive to get you to buy the perfume that's so backwards and it causes confusion.
So number two. You would be trained to kind of work the system, kind of game the system to buy the things that triggers the discount, even if you don't want those things that trigger the discount, rather than just simply coming in and investing in the main icon piece that you truly wanted anyways. And then the third thing, you would then feel uncertainty about what anything is worth.
Because the price is conditional, okay? And that uncertainty is the enemy of [00:18:00] luxury. This is also why the more options and conditions you add, the more you invite people into bargain shopping behavior rather than investment behavior. Now one thing that photographers also avoid saying out loud or admitting to that luxury brands understand with their whole entire being and they say it with their whole chest, is that high prices increase desirability when the price itself signals status and exclusivity.
So whenever you discount anything. What you're actually doing is you're decreasing the desirability. This is the logic behind what is called the Lin effect. I might be saying that wrong. It might be Lin, who knows? But it's the psychological idea that for certain [00:19:00] goods, demand can rise as the prices rise because the item signals.
Social status, and that's actually what Chanel does. Chanel does not mess around with increasing their prices slowly simply to keep up with the idea of inflation or simply to keep up with the economy. The classic Chanel flap bag has more than doubled. Since just the few, like most recent years, what once retailed around $5,800 a few years ago now exceeds $11,000 in 2025.
Who knows what it's gonna be in 2026, but this shows a strategic elevation in price well above inflation. And it doesn't mean that they're price gouging either. It simply means that they know that their price communicates. Who they are for and what kind of [00:20:00] experience they offer, and what kind of status their bag has, which obviously brings us to where we're positioning and our pricing models because our models should be built on placing.
The highest value on digital images because they are your intellectual property, because they are your currency and because they are the only irreplaceable asset that you have inside of your business. Now you might be like, whoa, Jody is on one today, but. This is not just a hot take from me. This is fact.
This is research, this is business. Other models doing it any other way, even inside of our industry or outside of our industry. They're wrong. And here's the second layer of that. All of this [00:21:00] causes too, is that valuing digitals like highly, it also safeguards us. Inside of our business from resenting the digital only clients whenever digitals are priced correctly, digital only clients are not a problem.
They are a profitable and aligned client. Because digital only clients come with way less overhead than product-based clients. The problem actually only exists whenever photographers price the digital only clients as if they are inferior to the wall art clients. Okay? Your digitals are your primary product.
Everything else, like everything else that they [00:22:00] purchase on top of. The digital images is gravy. Everything else is expansion. Everything else is an expanding of the experience that they get to have with you. Everything else is service. Everything else is you being a full service luxury brand. Okay, so the collections inside of your business should never devalue the digitals.
The collections where we're adding in framing and we're adding in albums, and we're adding in anything else that you provide for your clients. Those items should just simply add depth and also convenience because it's a done for you service and also prestige and status. And they should also really represent the idea that you have brought your clients from.
Like the beginning of your experience all the way through to completion. [00:23:00] This is where you build a true luxury value ladder. Now, if you're listening to this and you recognize that you business is the sliding scale discount model that we just talked about, if you are like, yeah, Jody, you're talking straight to me.
Honestly, I wanna ask you whether or not you feel like it's hard. I want you to, I wanna ask you whether or not you feel like it's not for you. I wanna ask you if it's working. I wanna ask you if you feel like it's capping you. But what I also wanna do is I wanna be very honest with you that this isn't about your effort.
This isn't about your talent. This isn't about you putting this method in place inside of your business. 'cause I know that you learned this from somewhere else and like it is not your fault that this is the method that has been adopted because it was taught to you as if this was the best [00:24:00] way to be doing things.
But this is about structure and the truth is. This particular system makes it almost impossible to scale without, eventually you starting to feel that resentment for the digital only clients. You starting to feel like, why are they only wanting this instead of wanting to do the the products? Also, it's going to make you feel capped because whenever you're doing the, the digital, or whenever you're doing the product side, you're getting penalized on the digital side.
So it's capping you from even being able to scale. So it's kind of like this idea, it's not kind of like, it is like you're constantly negotiating against yourself. If you sell them the digital products, you're screwing yourself out of the digital money. If you keep them on the digital money, then it's set in such a way that you're not making the kind of money that you would make on the product side.
[00:25:00] So it's this constant. Negative negotiation that's going on inside of your head and inside of your client's heads. So this is the exact kind of work that we will do inside of the Mastermind. We take pricing models like this one and like the one that I'm gonna talk about next week, and we rebuild them from the ground up so that they protect your digital images and they create clarity for your client.
And it aligns with how luxury buyers actually make decisions. It's not theory, it's not hypothetical. It's not just, let's grab some noodles and throw them against the wall and see if this works, and then let's teach it to other people. This is actual business. It's practical, it's specific. It's researched and it's tailored to your business because.
It's tailored to every business, so you're not [00:26:00] guessing, you're not like patching things together anymore. And at the time that I'm recording this, there's only two spots left for the Mastermind. And if you've been listening to this and you're like, you are speaking straight to me, I need help untangling this because this isn't working in my business and this doesn't feel right, then.
One of those spots is very likely yours, and next week we're breaking down another pricing model, another system that is even worse than this one, which is exactly why now is the moment to fix the foundation before it keeps costing you. I would usually wrap up an episode like this by being like, okay, let me like hop off of my soapbox.
I got too heated on here, but no, I'm not, I'm not getting down. I'm standing here and I'm standing tall, and I'm going to keep on saying the same [00:27:00] thing over and over and over again because this is the education that you deserve. You deserve for someone to come into your business and give you the value that you pay for and to teach you methods that are fundamentally sound because they work not only in your business, but they work in every business, and they are not just slapped together education systems or methods or models or structure.
It's not just slap together education that works for one person. But not the next person. 'cause it works for everybody in every business. If you feel like I'm talking directly to you and the corner of your eyes are getting prickly from finally feeling like somebody sees this struggle and somebody hears you, then meet me in the [00:28:00] show notes for the link.
To get one of these lost spots so that 2026 can actually be the year that you thought 2025 was going to be. Okay. That's all I've got. 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.
