Jodi | Posers Ep 88
===
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, my beautiful posers, and welcome back to another episode of the Posers Podcast. If you saw a video of that, you would see that I was shaking my titties.
Way to open a podcast. , I hope you are all thriving through what we all know is this [00:01:00] incredibly busy time of year. If you're watching my stories, then you know that thriving is definitely not the word that I would use to describe myself because, , it's been raining here in Las Vegas, and it has been raining every single weekend here in my city, and it has thrown my shooting schedule so far out of whack.
But I have been creating some really gorgeous work for the families that I have been able to shoot for, and, , that's fun, and that's always exciting. But has the weather thrown a wrench into things and made me contemplate going to work corporate? I'm just kidding.
No, no, no, no. It just means that November is going to be one hell of a month for me if I can get all of these photo shoots rebooked and happening. So this actually has nothing to do with what we're talking about today, and I don't even have a really fun [00:02:00] segue for you. We are going to talk about content today, because every time that I'm having a conversation with either my posers or with other photographers in person or in my DMs, there always just seems to be this huge question mark around content.
And also, like you hear me here on the podcast saying that, you know, you've gotta have convictions, and you've gotta have a common enemy, and you've gotta have authority-based content. You've gotta create demand with your content and all of that. And then whenever you actually go to create that content, you might...
I mean, you might not. You might be, like, a freaking bad bitch at your content, and you might be blowing it up. But that's not what I hear from the masses, okay? The masses are feeling a little bit like whenever they go to create this content that they just go blank, or they hit a wall, or they don't know what to post.
[00:03:00] And so they just kind of fall back into what's comfortable. And the thing that's comfortable for a lot of photographers is a carousel with a stack of pretty photos with some pretty music and a caption that says something along the lines of, "I can't believe that I get to create these beautiful images for the Smith family," or something generic along those lines.
So today we're talking about what you should be posting, when you should be posting it, and why the timing actually matters so much more than you might have ever thought Because I really do see a shift happening with photographers. I really do see you guys wanting to show up, and you're out there, you are filming the BTS, you are making the reels, you are doing the thing because you know that you need to be stopping the scroll in order to grab people's attention, especially on the internet.
Now, [00:04:00] whenever I... You guys know this about me already. Whenever I say content, you know that I'm not just talking about social media. I'm talking about your email marketing. I'm talking about the content that hits reels. I'm talking about the content that hits, , carousels. I'm talking about blog posts, if you're somebody who blogs, all of it.
Okay? Now, in the world of Posers, we are constantly talking about making sure that our content triggers and activates bookings. And we're also always talking about it creating authority and creating demand, and we really focus on making sure that the people who are watching, that we're controlling the way that they think, and that we want them thinking that there is absolutely no way that they would ever go with another photographer.
We want them saying, "Holy fucking shit. She is the best in our city," or, "She is the best person for me to hire for this job." And what I really love the most [00:05:00] about Posers, I love so much about Posers, obviously, but it might surprise you that the thing that I love the most isn't having this incredible program and creating these businesses that are basically, printing money for photographers.
You know I love that a lot. So if I'm saying that I love something else even more than that, then you know that there is some merit to what I'm about to say. Because what I love most is actually getting you to think differently about your business. And what I love even more than that is when I'm showing you to think a little bit differently about your business, how confident that can make you to show up in a completely different way.
So I wanna make sure that you know that today isn't , "Hey, look at this. Look at me. I've created Posers," or, , "You have to do it the Posers way." Today is about saying that If you've [00:06:00] always felt like you put your content inside of this kind of box in your head, like that you just have to show your work or that you just have to put out pretty photos or that you have to like talk softly and only speak to those, certain desire points that are always being spoken to, , I don't know, like how much moms are going to miss this someday or, you know, something like that.
I want today to challenge you. I want today to challenge you to add so many more layers to this because I want you to really understand buying psychology. I want you to really understand that there are psychological triggers that we need to be focusing on. And I want you to really actually understand what you need to create in order to drive success for your business.
So let's dive in. You should not be posting something for a couple of reasons. You should not be posting something [00:07:00] just because you're hoping that it'll pop off and it'll go viral. I have gone viral multiple times, and it has done absolutely nothing for my photography business except for give me a really high follower count that it, it does create some like optics, right?
There is some trust that sort of gets built in to that number. But for the most part, going viral has gotten me zero bookings directly related to that virality, okay? Another thing that you shouldn't be doing is you shouldn't be posting something just because it's trending. Unless if that trend actually fits your brand and it actually fits your messaging and it actually fits your audience.
'Cause I do love a trend, and sometimes I will post a trend, but it has to fit for my brand. It has to fit for my messaging. And another thing that you shouldn't be doing is you shouldn't be posting something just to check the box for the day that [00:08:00] says that you posted. All right? What you should be posting should be based on what you want that piece of content to actually do for your business.
And there are four things. There's probably more than four things, but we're gonna focus on these four things today that are very important. These four things that your content can do for you. If you want to be known as the go-to photographer in your city, there is a certain set of content for that, okay?
If you want for your ideal clients to be flooding into your DMs, there's a certain kind of content for that. If you want your audience to feel like they are going to miss out if they don't work with you, then there's a certain type of content for that, too, obviously. And then also, if you want to attract your dream clients and repel the clients who are not the right [00:09:00] fit for you, there's a specific kind of content for that also.
Now, I can already hear you saying, "Jody, I wanna do all four of those. I wanna do them all. I want clients flooding all the time. I wanna be booked. I wanna be busy. I wanna be making money. I wanna be doing all of that all the time." Yeah, I get it. I do, too. But you have to understand that each one takes a different kind of content, and it activates a different psychological trigger.
And they cannot and should not be happening all at the same time. Because your business has an ebb and a flow to it, right? There are seasons inside of your business. It's a little bit more like your business is on a bit of a rollercoaster, right? There are seasons of rest. There are seasons of booking.
There are seasons of shooting. There are busy seasons. There are slow seasons. Obviously, you are not supposed to be going 100 [00:10:00] miles per hour all year long thinking, "I've gotta give them the FOMO. I've gotta create urgency. I've gotta do this. I've gotta do that." Because if you do that, you are going to run into burnout, okay?
, That means that your content should have seasons too, right? Now, even though I run my bookings off of a launch system, this isn't only for someone who's running launches. But does it fit really nicely and snugly like a little bug in a rug inside of that launch system? Yes, it does. But This is how you should run your content no matter what kind of system you are using for your bookings.
Now, the season that we're in right now, like every single photographer I know is obviously in their busy season. So you are in your photo shoots, you are editing, you are doing reveals, and I know that this is also when it's the hardest to stay on top of your content. But knowing exactly what you should [00:11:00] be posting does make it easier because then you're not sitting at your desk staring at a blank computer screen thinking like, "What am I even supposed to be doing today?
What am I even supposed to be posting?" Even though you are slammed, this is the season where your content should be all about one thing and one thing only, and that word is proof. Okay? The point of your content right now is to be giving FOMO for next year. People are watching to see who ended up booking you this fall, and what kind of magic you created for them this fall, what kind of beautiful images you created for them this fall.
And if you think that people aren't watching you, you would be absolutely wrong. So right now, this is where you post transformations. Okay? That's your keyword for right now, transformations. This could be like your style boards and them coming to [00:12:00] life, , like on the real photo shoot. Okay? This could be the mom who thought that she was gonna be stressed and frazzled, and then ended up having the most incredible experience.
The real-time situation where your clients showed up, , super late and what you did to problem solve right then and there and still create gorgeous family photos for them, that is what you should be focusing on right now. Also, what you need to be focusing on right now is testimonials. Because right now, you literally have the whole entire guts of your business happening in real time.
Okay? Every single time that one of your clients says something about booking the photo shoot, about not booking the photo shoot, about how they feel during the shoot or after it, or what they say at the reveal, or when they get their gallery, that is golden content. Because those things that your clients are saying, that is what other people are thinking that will keep [00:13:00] them from booking the photo shoot.
That transformation of what they actually got in the process with you, that is what all of the clients who've been watching you, or potential clients who've been watching you, needs to hear in order to be booking with you in the future. So right now, when you have this running in real time, it is your job to collect and use as much of it as you possibly can.
I used to do this all the time. Like back whenever I was running the marketing for J-Anne so freaking hard, I would pick up my phone at the end of a photo shoot. I would literally like reach out, tickle a little kid's tummy, and I would ask them a question right there on the spot. I would say something along the lines of , "Oh my God, did you have so much fun with me today?"
And they'd say, "Yeah." And they'd scream, and they'd giggle, and they'd laugh, and whatever. And I would say, "Tell me about your favorite part." And then they would go in and they would say, "Oh, I loved it whenever Daddy's tickling me," or, "Oh my [00:14:00] God, Daddy throwing me," or playing airplane or doing this or doing that or, , snuggling with Mommy, whatever.
They gave their real-life answers right then and there about how great of an experience it was for them. So it was already sending the messaging to my potential clients that these photo shoots weren't awful. They weren't dreadful. My families were actually making memories in real time inside of the photo shoots.
And I had these little kids who literally, with a megaphone for my business, were creating that messaging for me, 'kay? , .. this was a long time ago, so now there's a little bit more concern about putting kids on the internet, which I completely understand. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, or if your clients don't feel comfortable doing it, that's perfectly fine because you can sidestep all of this and you can simply use the adults in the exact same way.
I would oftentimes have dads saying [00:15:00] the same thing, saying that it was a completely different experience than anything they had ever done before. And any time that a dad would say something like that right in front of me on the photo shoot, I would simply joke and nudge him and be like, "Tell me you'll say that on camera for me," or, "Oh my God, let me get that on camera," or like something like that.
And he would normally be in a really great mood because he just had a great photo shoot. He would say, "Absolutely." So I would pull up my phone, and I would say , "Did you hate the photo shoot today?" And he would say, "No. Oh my God, absolutely not. It's actually one of the best photo shoots I've ever been on."
Or they would even say what was awkward and stiff about working with other photographers on other photo shoots that they had done in the past, and why things felt so much better when working with me. I even had this dad, I remember one time, because this stayed in my marketing for so [00:16:00] long. I actually think to this day, it is still inside of my email funnels.
But this family , , they had done photos with me, and way back when, whenever I was... This was still whenever I was all-inclusive and all of that. So they had spent maybe $1,500 with me, but I was one of the most expensive in my city. And so they were thinking like, "Oh my God, that's so much money to spend for a photo shoot."
And so the following year after that, they actually cheated on me, right? They went and they did photos with somebody else. And then they came back to me the following year, I remember it being on video. I remember all... exactly how this happened because the dad said, "I don't care how much money you cost, we will always book you because of what this experience feels like."
And when I tell you that I took that little golden nugget of what that dad said, and I exploited it inside of my marketing,, [00:17:00] I beat that horse to death inside of my marketing. And I'm pretty sure it is still inside of my funnel that goes out right now, okay? But this is how this works. you have the guts of your whole entire business happening right now in real time, right in front of you.
So the things that your families are saying to you, pay attention to them. And honestly, like they don't even have to be reels, okay? You don't have to overthink this, and you don't have to have it on camera. It could be a carousel that starts with a really great hook like, "I don't know who needs to hear this, but one of my dads had the best time of his life on a photo shoot, and here's what happened."
And then tell the story inside of the carousels while also weaving in what the photos ended up looking like. Okay? So again, for this time of year, you're thinking transformation. You are thinking FOMO. You are thinking [00:18:00] proof. You are making sure that they are seeing what is happening in real time and what you are creating so that they will think in their head, "Holy shit, I am never going to book with anybody else."
Okay? Then we're gonna get through the rush of this season, and we're gonna go into the holidays, and we're gonna go into the winter months. And our content obviously isn't going to be pounding on these testimonials and on these before and afters and results because we're not in that season anymore, and guess what?
Neither are our buyers. Their buying psychology is not in that place, right? So what we are going to be doing after we get out of this busy season, we are going to be laying the foundation for all of 2027. So this is where you start to create the content where you want to become known as the go-to photographer in your city.
And if you want to be the go-to photographer, you absolutely cannot look like everyone [00:19:00] else. Okay? Copycats never stand out at the top of an industry. The innovators do. So this is where you post your original frameworks. An original framework is your process, the way that you do things with your name on it, right?
It is how you style a family from head to toe. It is how you get a dad who hates photos to actually laugh. It is how your reveals work. The thing is, I think that a lot of photographers hear this, and they think, "Oh, but that's not my framework. That's just the way that everybody does it." But here's where I wanna challenge you, because you have to think about things the way that your clients think about things, not the way that other photographers think about things, right?
Because your clients don't know how other photographers do things, or maybe they know a little bit because they've booked with a couple of photographers here and there, but they don't think about it. They don't harp on it. They [00:20:00] don't compare notes of, "Oh, well, this photographer did this or that photographer did that," or whatever.
, The way that I would do this in my business years back is I would always say key statements like, "This isn't how we do things here at Jayanne Photography." Or I'd make a big stink about the fact that, , we're not ever shooting bright colors here. I would always be disgusted at the color orange and the color red.
I would make a big deal about, , seeing those sort of bright colors and the fact that my retinas were being attacked, okay? I made my whole entire city think that was part of my signature look, even though there are other photographers in my city doing the exact same style, right? So- You have to own your framework as if you're the person who invented it.
I am not the first person to use, let's say, like a psychological approach to posing, right? So that clients don't feel [00:21:00] stiff and awkward. But I created the posing method, and I put my stamp on it. I put my name on it. And I'm not necessarily saying that you have to go out and you have to create a digital course that, gives you ownership of a certain type of framework inside of your business.
But you do have to speak about things in that way, because I also beat that like a dead horse inside of my business to the point that I convinced my whole entire city to know that I was an expert at posing and that was my superpower. And honestly, I am really good at posing, and that is a superpower that I have.
But I made it mine. I put my name on it. And I did this with so many other parts of the framework of my business, all right? So this time of year is also where you can be posting hot takes too, okay? Especially hot takes around your frameworks and why you do things the [00:22:00] way that you do. Or you can be posting things that are a little bit more controversial.
You wanna hit those convictions. You wanna be posting the things like, you don't need to lose those 10 pounds before your photos. Or, saying something about matching outfits aren't the, the move that you think that they are, or that your kids can be feral little hyenas, or like anything that you would say as a hot take that is big inside of your business.
This is a really, really great time to be making that also. You might also wanna be making some predictions during this timeframe in your business. Something along the lines of where family photos like style or fashion is gonna go for the spring. Florals for the spring? Groundbreaking.
Honestly, make some content around Miranda Priestly saying that because that's hilarious content because we would all obviously be creating like motherhood photos or something like that tend to have like a lot of floral installments happening. , [00:23:00] That's great content because you're making the prediction about spring and about there being florals involved, and you have that key line from such an incredible movie, from The Devil Wears Prada, that you could throw in as a funny way to show your personality plus also be making those predictions.
Okay? This is also the time of year whenever you would start some kind of a signature series. Something along the lines of like What I'm doing in the next 100 days to make sure that I deliver incredible motherhood photos in the spring. Or you could be posting, , a weekly spring style board, or you could be, like, taking your audience along while you scout, , spring locations, okay?
Or you're answering one client question every single week. So your frameworks and your signature series and your predictions and the way that you actually think, you want that to be your content during this next phase. [00:24:00] Because you want the way that you are thinking and your potential clients, you want them to be seeing that you're thinking about these things ahead of time, that you are owning these frameworks, that you are a superhuman at doing these certain things inside of your business, and you want them seeing that you're doing it like nobody else in your city.
All right? So then, as we get closer to a booking season for the spring, then you want your ideal clients to be flooding your DMs, right? Or you want them to be flooding into your website or into your email or however it is that you are actually, like, connecting with your clients. We are connecting all of our content to our lead magnets, okay?
We're connecting all of our content to our lead magnets. We're connecting those lead magnets to ManyChat. So we are really heavily focusing [00:25:00] on building our audience during this time period, okay? And for that to happen Your ideal clients have to feel seen, and they have to believe that you are the person who can solve their pain points and you can provide their desire points.
So this is where you post a lot more Q&As. You post a lot more , , objection-based content. Okay? You name the exact problems that your clients are facing, and you share situations from maybe past happenings that show where you solved those problems for other clients that you've had. Okay? Your potential clients have questions, but they aren't necessarily questions that are so pressing that they're like, "Oh, I need to send her a DM."
Right? They're not motivated to actually send you a DM and ask. So it is your [00:26:00] job to know what those questions are or what those objections are, and to answer them in your content. Okay? Now, for posers, - at this point, we would be about to go into a launch, okay? And we're going to obviously be running all of those brand-new emails that we're attracting and that we're collecting through a very concentrated email sequence that controls psychological triggers associated with activating bookings.
But even if you're not running a launch, you're still going into a booking season where you're announcing that your spring dates are open, right? So then Once you get into that next season, you're right back into your busy season, just like we are in right now, and it all starts all over again, right?
So each season of your business gets its own kind of content. This is actually the first time that I'm talking about this deep. What I teach [00:27:00] inside of the mastermind has a lot of this built into it, but I'm taking it into the next round, and I'm honing it even further. But- I care about this so much because the number one thing that I hate to see is photographers not knowing, like, where to step next.
Not having an actual roadmap and an actual game plan for building the business that I know you are craving to build. And that fear of, , making the wrong move or not doing the right thing, , that can paralyze women. Not just photographers, but, , women in general. And it can keep you from driving toward the financial freedom that I know you so desperately want for yourself, but that I so desperately want for you also.
So the next time that you are sitting down on a content day and you're getting ready to post or that you're creating the content of what you're going to post, I want you [00:28:00] to ask yourself what season of your business are you in and what do you need your buyer or your ideal client or your potential client, however you want to name it, what do you need them to feel right now?
Okay? Are you in a season where you need new eyeballs on you? Cool. Then you're gonna go create that content. Are you in a season where you actually wanna start flooding your DMs, you want people, like, starting to salivate, you're wanting them to start wanting to do bookings? Cool. You go and create that kind of - content.
Or are you in, , your actual shooting season and you're wanting them to see the results and feeling like they're missing out by not booking you? Then cool, you go post all that transformation content, right? If you want to build this with me inside of the next round of the mastermind, the wait list is actually not even a wait list anymore.
It is a full-blown, , Jodi's gonna contact you list. But that [00:29:00] link to make sure that you are on that list is inside of the show notes. The link to actually skip over that list and to just get a call booked with me so that we can talk through this, that is also in your show notes, or it's going to be inside of the email that you get every single week letting you know that there's a new episode out.
But either way, it is somewhere out there within my means of getting to you, and it's all over my social media right now also. Okay? , I would love more than anything to sit down and have a conversation with you to see whether or not the mastermind is the right fit for you for 2027. But for today, that's all I've got for you.
Bye 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 [00:30:00] 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.
