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 another episode of the Posers Podcast. I am thrilled that you are here. My name is Jody, and I am the host of this podcast, and we've got a lot of new listeners, so this might be a really great moment to just kind of reintroduce what we do here. [00:01:00] This. Is the Posers podcast, and this isn't your typical photography education platform.
I am not the type of photographer who is going to show up here to try to teach you how to take prettier photos and hope that somehow that turns into a business. I am direct and I am blunt, and I am to the point I am. Not a girl's girl who is going to hype you up or gas you up while you are doing the same exact things that are keeping you stuck or keeping you stagnant inside of your business.
I like to refer to myself as a woman's woman. Because I care more about your long-term success and about your confidence and about your ability to actually build a business that changes your life. I care more about that than I do about being liked at any given moment. So I am going to tell you the truth, [00:02:00] even when it's uncomfortable, even when it might sting a little bit.
Because the version of you that you are aiming to become doesn't need an emotional support animal. You need clarity, you need direction. You need someone who is willing to say the hard things, the things that most people are afraid to say, and that's exactly what we do here. We dive into the psychology of why people actually book, why they spend, and how to position yourself so that you're not just another photographer hoping to get picked.
This is about thinking differently, showing up differently, and creating real demand that actually works. It is very direct, it is very strategic, and yes, sometimes it's gonna hit a nerve, but that discomfort. That's where growth happens. So let's get into it because I know that your tits are up and you are ready to hear an insanely good episode.
One [00:03:00] that will make your titties tingle in the best way, one that is also a little bit longer than I usually go on an episode. So I'm not quite sure how many parts this episode is going to have, but I can tell you that it is a huge, huge, huge topic that is. What's the right word for this topic? It feels elusive.
It feels like it's something that we sometimes just can't really wrap our arms around, and it is such a huge question that I get often that I've decided that I'm finally going to tackle it, and it's going to take me several episodes to get through all of the points that I wanna get through. But first, here's why you should listen to me.
I don't teach luxury from theory. I teach it from a lived. Proven example of [00:04:00] what I create inside of my real life, inside of my real business. In 2025, I photographed about 90 full sessions, and I generated roughly $400,000 in my studio just in 2025 alone with an average sale on those full sessions of about $4,200 with my top clients.
Often investing between 15 to $20,000 on a single one hour photo shoot. Now that doesn't happen by accident, and it isn't about just taking pretty photos alone. It comes from understanding how people think, how they make decisions, and how to position your work so that it feels undeniable. I've got two master's degrees in psychology, and I use that knowledge in psychology every single day to build demand and to guide my clients and to drive sales.
And I've turned that [00:05:00] into a system that other photographers are now implementing with real measurable success. So when I talk about luxury, I am not guessing. And today I'm telling you exactly how to create it, how to sell it. And how to sustain it. Alright, so you know that I love connecting in my dms with all of you.
I make sure that I spend a lot of my time there and some of my favorite conversations happen inside of those chats. In fact, a lot of the topics that we're gonna dive in on this podcast come straight from questions that you send me. And if you've ever think that you have a question that you want me to unpack here on the podcast, my dms is the place to reach me directly.
So if you ever drop me like a really quick question, then I will probably reply with like a really fast take on it, but a [00:06:00] deeper topic. I will turn that into a full episode that we can explore, so that we can explore it here together in detail and today's topic. It came from exactly that kind of dm. Now, I've gotten this question a lot inside of my dms, but I've never decided to tackle it here on the podcast.
So I got this question last week where when a photographer slid into my dms asking how to attract a luxury client base, and I was like, you know what? I've gotten this question enough that I need to spend some time here. She said that she was struggling to find, she wasn't struggling to find clients.
Overall, her business is actually growing, but she has found that her leads feel like they are still budget shopping a little bit. She wanted to ask me, she, 'cause she wanted to know how to shift towards attracting higher end [00:07:00] clients without turning off the people that she already serves and. I asked her a few clarifying, uh, questions in order to get like the full picture.
I asked her, what does luxury mean in her world? What has she tried that is currently working or not working, and how she defines. Value beyond an actual price tag. And she said that she would define luxury as something high-end, something full service, and something that is highly desired because of perceived status.
And honestly, that's a really, really great answer. It's simply that. It deserves a little bit of defining even inside of there, so like how do you define high end? How do you define full service? How do you define perceived status? Okay. So she also said that her customer base is [00:08:00] small, but she is super proud of how quickly it's grown in a short amount of time, and she really, really likes her clients.
But most of her clients are people that she would describe as budget shoppers in their daily life. And now she's wanting to shift her marketing and her approach to her business, but she has a couple of hangups with that one. She's concerned about alienating her current client base that have been so loyal to her and she really, really cares about them.
And number two, if she makes these big shifts with her marketing and her business structure, but she doesn't have the high-end audience that she's. Like currently seeking, will she simply be talking into a void? And she wants to know how does she actually gain those followers and those email subscribers in the first place.
[00:09:00] So if you're listening and you're wondering the same thing, like how do you attract a luxury buyer? How do you articulate a truly luxury offering? And how do you upgrade the client journey without alienating your current client base? Then turn your volume up. Because we're gonna get into it. Okay? We need to unpack first how to like embody luxury and signal real value and build a client experience that attracts the right kind of high-end buyer.
Because simply raising your prices is not going to work. That is the fastest way to light your business on fire. Actually, you can't simply. Slap a high price tag on something and call it luxury, and then think that people will buy. Okay, so let's first dive into truly defining and delivering luxury [00:10:00] inside of photography, not the buzzword version, because I.
Hate this idea that just slap the buzzword of luxury on it, and you think, okay, cool. I'm luxury. I can charge a certain amount. So I don't want the buzzword version, but I want the real embodied experience that attracts discerning clients and sustains a premium business. But. The crazy thing is, is that raising your prices is actually less about money and more about elevating the entire relationship that you have with clients.
So here's like an anchor point. You guys know, those of you who have been around for a minute know that I am elbows deep into the work of Cap Fre right now. Ca kafer rare. I say it wrong every time because I think. That it's fringe. Um, but I've looked it up and the [00:11:00] actual way to say it is cap for rare, but it's not spelled that way.
So it's hard for me to say, um, he is the daddy of luxury buying psychology. But I'm gonna take what I've been reading from his book that we talked about a few episodes ago, and I'm gonna morph it for photography. So. Luxury in photography is delivering a high-end hands-on experience from concept to finished product through expert artistry and bespoke service.
Okay. I actually love the word bespoke, but I also hate speaking in like. A frilly font. Okay. And bespoke is like this really pretty word that can like, I don't know, sort of roll off your tongue and make you feel pretty and make you feel smart, and all of those things. But bespoke simply means tailored.
Okay, so let's, let's dive into that again. So again, luxury is delivering [00:12:00] a high end. Hands-on experience from the point of styling and planning and dreaming stage of whatever it is that you are planning with your client and all the way through to either the finished images or if you offer products, then the finished products, and you're doing all of that with expert artistry.
And a service that is completely catered to and tailored to one specific client. Let's first be clear here that there is not a certain number. There is not a certain like value of a price that defines luxury. Luxury is driven by a shit ton of factors that can actually never be compared so. Luxury in the south of France is yachts, right?
It's access to the Can Film festival. It's [00:13:00] million dollar deals that are happening. It it's luxury on a completely different landscape. Okay. On a completely different platform, completely different tier. If you've ever been to the south of France, or even the Italian Riviera or the Amalfi Coast, the yachts that are dopp the water over there, it, it's a whole different world of money.
It's a whole different world of luxury. Okay. I live in Las Vegas. Luxury in Las Vegas is like high roller suites. It's sports cars. It's, it's hookers and blow. Okay.
Okay. But actually for real, it's like that's what it is in luxury. Okay. If we're talking about luxury in the sense of like. Uh, I, I don't know. Let me just like the trad wife phenomenon that's happening on, um, on social media. Okay. [00:14:00] Luxury there is like an expansive farm. Luxury in the influencer space is who does or doesn't have a Birkin luxury in Texas is like designer boots and um, land and a souped up F-150 or multiple souped up F1 fifties and probably all the millions of dollars of tractors that they own.
Okay, so all of these obviously have money in common. Yes. But. The photography that serves these markets and the photography products that serve these markets are all completely different. So the photographer who asked this question, she's based in Ohio, and I'm not going to pretend that I know what luxury looks like in Ohio because that's how people end up building businesses based on assumptions instead of reality.
But. This is where your market research [00:15:00] really has to come in, and it is a non-negotiable if you actually wanna position yourself at the top in your market. First, you have to study who is already being paid at the highest level in your area. Not just photographers. You need to look at high-end realtors.
You need to look at interior designers. You need to look at med spas. You need to look at boutique fitness studios. Who is attracting the affluent clients? What does their branding look like? How do they speak? What does their clients experience or feel like inside of their businesses? That's your baseline for what luxury already looks like in your market.
Okay? And then you take that information and you reverse engineer your ideal client's spending habits. Where are they shopping? What are they driving? Where are their kids going to [00:16:00] school? What do they prioritize spending money on without hesitation? Luxury isn't about your opinion of what luxury is. It's about what your specific client already values and is willing to invest in.
Okay? You've got to get yourself into these rooms. You have to go experience. These rooms for yourself. You have to book the nice dinner. You have to walk through the high-end stores. You have to tour the model homes. You have to pay attention to how you're treated, how things are presented, how decisions are guided.
Luxury is far less of a price tag and far more of a feeling. And I seriously cannot emphasize this enough, if you've never experienced luxury, you can't replicate it in your business. So that's [00:17:00] how you define luxury in your area, not by guessing, not by looking at what other photographers are doing all over the United States or all over the world, or wherever it is that you're looking and you're thinking like, oh, well this person that I follow, I absolutely love what she's doing and she's offering this and this and this product, and she is, you know, booking at this rate.
So that's luxury. No, you have to define luxury in your area. Not by guessing, but by observing understanding, and then intentionally building something that aligns with what already exists at the top, it is impossible to tell like anybody, not just you. It's impossible to tell anybody how to exude luxury over this like one podcast or in one definition because it lives.
Throughout the entire client journey from the very first inquiry to the final [00:18:00] delivery with your clients. So how would luxury actually exist in the first inquiry you might ask because access. I'm gonna tell it to you how I have it in my business. Okay. Access to me. Is controlled very tightly during the inquiry po process.
Okay? Luxury is not something that is ever easily attainable, so I'm not answering every inquiry like an eager beaver who will discount my price in order to get somebody to book. Access to my time and my calendar has barriers to entry. That exclusivity is felt surrounding the language that is used when I'm communicating in those very first sentences.
Whenever most photographers are sending a thesis about their services, a dissertation on every like [00:19:00] bell and whistle that they have inside of their process, and a pricing guide that is filled with an insane amount of verbiage and tiered pricing models and photos of every single frame option and every single thing that they could ever get Whenever they're inside of this business and they're saying like.
Oh, hey, here's what you get from me, and here's this, and here's this and here's this, and do you wanna book? I'm not doing that. I'm simply asking one question at a time. And the people who are inquiring, inquiring with me, they, they're getting these questions from me that actually have nothing to do with photography.
I'm asking them questions about them. I'm vetting them to see if they belong in my world. I'm asking who we're photographing and why now. What's important about this moment right now that we're, that we're, that we're doing this photo shoot, [00:20:00] I'm asking. Who their interior designer is and whether or not she has a plan for where the images would be hung.
I'm asking whether or not they've ever shot with anybody who knows me before, or I'm sorry, I'm asking whether or not anybody who they know has ever shot with me before, as if like they're coming from a word of mouth referral. Okay. I'm asking if they already have a vision for wardrobe. Or whatever style or whatever vision they have, so that I know when I'm gonna get my stylist involved.
So notice that there's a huge difference there, that even if their budget wasn't in this world, imagine how many people are going to rise to meet me where I'm at. Because of the basic human desire to belong in a room that they're aspiring [00:21:00] to be in. Let me say that again in a different way. So whenever I have these inquiries that are coming in and I'm not sending them a thesis, I'm not giving them a pricing guide.
I'm not telling them about my services. I'm not telling them what I offer, and I'm simply asking them these questions about whether or not they have come to me from another referral source or whether or not, um. They have an interior designer that they're working with, whether or not they already have a vision, whether or not they have a stylist of their own who is working with wardrobe and whether or not my stylist is gonna get involved, there's a huge difference there.
And so even if they're coming in and. They are a little bit concerned about the budget or they don't quite know where my pricing starts. Imagine what this does to that basic human desire of wanting to [00:22:00] rise into this room. Okay? Luxury is a system of exclusive value. Most importantly, that value has to be defined by rarity and status.
That status has to be earned. It is achieved through consistent artistry, precision in your craft, and an unrivaled client journey. Luxury for us isn't just chasing a price point. It is inviting clients into a world where beauty, skill, and service come together to feel worth the investment. But again, my client journey will not be the same as yours.
I live in the desert with a disgusting amount of days that topple over a hundred degrees. [00:23:00] Luxury is. Being indoors. Luxury is designer handbags, expensive cars, summers spent away because of the heat. It's high ticket dinners and, uh, expensive shows on the Las Vegas strip. And if I'm being honest, uh, here in Vegas it's a little bit of like tacky luxury.
Okay? But if you're in the Pacific Northwest, luxury is likely none of these things. Luxury in the Pacific Northwest is probably quiet. It's probably intentional. It's probably deeply tied to lifestyle and it's less flashy, less about spending and more about like elevated minimalism and spaces that feel connected to the outdoors.
People invest heavily in experience and whenever it comes to their products. They probably favor sustainability over [00:24:00] like obvious status symbols that I would have here. So the flex there isn't being seen and flashy the way that like my market would be, but it would be a lot more about that sustainability and being a lot quieter.
Alright, so enough about the market and actually like defining luxury. Let's talk about something a little bit more tactical. Let's talk about your actual portfolio and let's debunk some of the commonly spread rumors about your portfolio and luxury. So for the photographer, studying and living art is actually paramount.
It's about actually having a trained eye and being able to edit with discernment. So. When your work reflects refined taste, your portfolio then becomes a beacon [00:25:00] for the affluent client because it resonates with what they already see in their world. They don't just see pretty images. They feel a point of view that matches their lifestyle and their standards, and this is where you have to get really.
Really honest with yourself, and you have to ask whether or not you're actually studying art or are you following photographers that you like. On Instagram, there's a very, very, very big difference. You have to study art in a way that actually translates to your work. I do this by paying attention to how the human body actually looks when it's at rest, not whenever it's posed, not whenever it's overworked, whenever it's just existing, and then.
I look at [00:26:00] artists' work, I look at other photographer's work, but I look at the greats. I look at the icons. I look at the people who have done it for generations and generations and generations, and who have curated their work and mastered their craft. I look at the greats like Peter Lindbergh. I look at Tim Walker.
I look at Irving Penn. I look at obviously Annie Lebowitz. Okay. I study how they still create shape within that stillness of how the body looks when it's at rest. And what I see whenever I'm studying this work, I literally, I will buy these books. I will buy the coffee table books of these incredible artists, and I will study them.
And what I see is that there's always a line, there's always a bend. There's always a shift in weight that keeps the image from falling flat, [00:27:00] and it's an interesting shift in weight because it feels so effortless in the photo when. In fact, I know that it took a lot of effort. I pay attention to angles.
The way that a shoulder drops, I pay attention to the way that a chin turns, okay? The way that hands can either add to an image or completely ruin it, I'm constantly asking, does this feel natural or does this feel placed? And I really, really study to see where connection lives, not just in like obvious interaction, but in proximity or in tension or in the space that's in between people.
Sometimes it's not about what they're doing, sometimes it's about what they're not doing, and. I look at fashion [00:28:00] imagery and I study how props are used, and then I will mentally replace those props with like say in a fashion image where they might have a shoe or where they might have a handbag or where they might have a floral or something like that, and I will replace those and see whether or not I can figure out that a way that I can introduce a baby.
Or a child being added into a photo in that same kind of way, and this forces me to see structure instead of surface. What I mean by that is like it forces me to see how the photo is actually built. Okay. You have to build a photo based on angles and lines, and then also. The emotion and the tension and the connection that's happening between people.
[00:29:00] That photo is built versus just looking at something in a two dimensional sort of way of like, oh, okay, this person stood here and put their hand here. There's a huge difference. I pay attention to what's not in the frame just as much as what is because negative space and breathing room and restraint is just as important.
As the decisions that you make to put into the photo, I pay attention to leading lines and where the eye travels through the photo. And when I'm curating my portfolio, I am ruthless about this. I'm not asking if an image is good. I am asking if it actually reflects taste, if it feels aligned with the kind of life that my clients live, or the kind of life that my clients aspire to live.
And for photographers, this is the line of [00:30:00] distinction. You have to understand what life your clients live because affluent clients notice details. They do not shop in a shared closet. They don't use fake florals. They wouldn't style themselves differently than the way that designers style them. They respond to the familiarity of what they see in their everyday life to a point of view that already exists in their world.
So if you're not understanding that viewpoint, if you're not studying that viewpoint, then you won't understand what kind of imagery or curation or design that needs to happen to your portfolio. That's the shift. Okay, so here's like, here's how you can put this into action. You go, go and take a look at your website and then look at the website of all those other business owners that, [00:31:00] like I was talking about before, that would have your same client base in your area.
And then go look at the websites of the places that your clients would shop, whether that's like design or fashion brands, or like. I don't know. A, a Dallas boutique with really gorgeous like stitched floral cowboy boots and rhinestones on the butt pockets. Okay. See where your website measures up against them.
Check and see whether or not there's alignment. Does it have the same taste level? Does it have the same refinement and artistry and curation? Start paying attention to sequence, not just single images. Whenever you look at your portfolio, does it feel like a collection? Does it feel like curation? Instead of asking like, is this a good image?
Ask, does this image belong next to the [00:32:00] one before it? And if it like breaks the spell of the collection, if it sticks out like a sore thumb, if it doesn't fit inside of the world that you're creating, no matter how much you love that photo, it has to get taken out. You have to pay attention to the consistency of light and tone across your work luxury.
Never, ever, ever feels chaotic. If one image has warm skin tones, and the next one, the baby's face is really red the way that newborns tend to be, and then the next one is like. Or a really, really cool image. So cool that their hands and if their feet, if you're shooting in the studio, look like they're damn near purple or blue.
That reads as uncertainty. So even if each image is quote unquote good without editing mastery, they [00:33:00] dilute your authority. Your portfolio should feel like one continuous voice. So start auditing your work for cracks in that perceived value, like really zoom in, really look, and if there's something that's pulling your eye away from the subject, affluent clients are going to notice that they are hyper aware of detail.
If your image feels like it's sloppy anywhere, it reads as a lack of discernment. Everywhere. So you have to pay attention to that. Not every image needs to be like big, huge laughs and big, huge reactions either. In fact, a lot of luxury imagery lives in subtle and soft expressions and quiet moments and connections that are barely there.
And [00:34:00] then here's a rule. Here's something you should really think about. Once you've gone through and you've looked at your portfolio with this really, really discerning eye, remove 30% of it, not because it's bad, not because it's not exceptional, but luxury is just as much about what you withhold as what you show.
The tighter the edit, the stronger the perception of taste. Because at this level, it's not about adding more, it's about refining until there's no question, until somebody lands on your work and thinks this already feels like me. And this extends to your Instagram too. So whenever you're doing this audit, don't just look at your website.
Go look at your feed like it's the very first time you have ever seen it and look at it to see whether or not it feels like a [00:35:00] curated body of work, or does it actually feel a little bit more like a scrapbook? Are there personal photos mixed in with some of the professional images in a way that breaks the illusion of your brand?
Do your. Reels have like intentional cover images that maintain the aesthetic of your grid, or are they like random freeze frames that disrupt the visual flow? Are there promotions or mini session announcements or Santa photos that are like outdated? Your content is that stuff sitting front and center so that.
Even a client who's coming to your feed will not even be able to recognize who the artist actually is, who the photographer actually is, because affluent clients don't separate these things. They're not thinking like, oh, this is just her [00:36:00] Instagram, or, oh. She just hasn't posted enough to get the Santas out of the scroll, or, oh, well, she just ran, you know, some mini shoots, so of course there's some promo stuff up here.
They're taking it all in as one experience. They're taking it all in as one point of view and one standard, and if anything in that experience feels inconsistent or cluttered or out of season, it chips away at the perception of refinement that you are trying to build. Okay? I told you that this is a really, really big topic.
All right. This is the part that most photographers will overlook because they will focus on simply creating images that look like everybody else's, or they simply do what somebody else that they follow does, and they try to replicate that instead of actually looking at their [00:37:00] portfolio and. Thinking about what should actually be presented and what their actual strongest images are and what they're actually the greatest at.
And then curating and presenting and packaging that experience for the client who is actually inside of the luxury space in their market. That's 0.1 and 0.2 of this discussion about luxury. So we're talking about defining luxury and the fact that it cannot be defined in one certain way because it is completely different in every single different city.
Every single different market, every single different part of not only our country, but. The world. Okay, so we're defining that for your actual market, and you're doing the research to figure out how you live inside of that world, [00:38:00] and then you have to look at your actual work and are you creating work based on studying and understanding?
Art and understanding curation and being able to actually look at your work and present it and package it so that when that affluent client is coming into your space, into your ecosystem, then are they landing in a space where they can automatically know. Exactly who you are, exactly what you create, exactly what you deliver, and exactly what they are going to get from you.
This is a huge topic we're gonna keep on talking about this next week. I'm gonna put a pin in it right here because this is already getting too long, but we still have to talk about so much that actually impacts how you are able to move. Your business [00:39:00] from whatever it is that you are, whatever kind of client it is that you're serving right now, and to move it into a place where you can actually demand for your work to have a higher value.
Okay, that's it for today. So buy for now, posers.
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.
