237 - Welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of running a successful photography business!
Today, Nicole Begley and our mostly-co-host, Heather Lahtinen, tackle the tricky terrain of photography pricing and those stubborn beliefs that just might be holding your business back.
Ever whispered to yourself, "That strategy won't work for my photography business," or felt your heart race at the thought of adjusting your pricing? You're not alone.
We're here to challenge those thoughts head-on, from debunking market myths to navigating the anxiety around photography pricing.
This episode is all about embracing your unique path, standing confidently by your pricing structure, and infusing a bit more joy into your photography business journey. So, settle in and let's unravel these common photography business conundrums together!
What To Listen For:
Redefining Market Boundaries: "That won't work in my market" is a common refrain by photographers and one that we think is absolutely detrimental to your business.
The Price Perception Puzzle: Ever consider that high prices might actually be attracting clients rather than deterring them?
Embracing Your Unique Path: No matter how crowded the market may seem - there’s always room for your unique and authentic path.
Navigating the Fear of High Prices: Does the thought of raising your prices give you heart palpatations? We’ll reveal strategies to help you confidently stand by your pricing structure.
The Power of Reframing Thoughts: Figuring out what thoughts aren’t serving you are only part of the problem - now we need to learn how to reframe them.
Resources From This Episode:
JOIN THE PARTY:
237 - Welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of running a successful photography business!
Today, Nicole Begley and our mostly-co-host, Heather Lahtinen, tackle the tricky terrain of photography pricing and those stubborn beliefs that just might be holding your business back.
Ever whispered to yourself, "That strategy won't work for my photography business," or felt your heart race at the thought of adjusting your pricing? You're not alone.
We're here to challenge those thoughts head-on, from debunking market myths to navigating the anxiety around photography pricing.
This episode is all about embracing your unique path, standing confidently by your pricing structure, and infusing a bit more joy into your photography business journey. So, settle in and let's unravel these common photography business conundrums together!
What To Listen For:
Redefining Market Boundaries: "That won't work in my market" is a common refrain by photographers and one that we think is absolutely detrimental to your business.
The Price Perception Puzzle: Ever consider that high prices might actually be attracting clients rather than deterring them?
Embracing Your Unique Path: No matter how crowded the market may seem - there’s always room for your unique and authentic path.
Navigating the Fear of High Prices: Does the thought of raising your prices give you heart palpatations? We’ll reveal strategies to help you confidently stand by your pricing structure.
The Power of Reframing Thoughts: Figuring out what thoughts aren’t serving you are only part of the problem - now we need to learn how to reframe them.
Resources From This Episode:
JOIN THE PARTY:
I am Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer, turned pet and family photographer back in 2010. I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses.
I believe that achieving two to $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six figure businesses that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion, or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place with over 350,000 downloads.
With welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Begley, and today we have one of our favorites back, basically our co-host of the show, Heather Laton. And welcome back to the podcast. Oh my Gosh, thank you so much for having me. It is my absolute pleasure to be here.
I love talking with you about different things that photographers struggle with and I'm, I'm curious, what are, what are we gonna talk about today? Well, I actually wrote down 10 different things that I hear, and I'm sure you hear from photographers of reasons that maybe they're having trouble in your, their business or they aren't getting the results that they want.
And most of these reasons are things like, that won't work in my market, or maybe my prices are too high, or all external things, which I mean, we know that it's never about the external. Listen, I dunno If we wanna dive into that yet. Right. We, We can keep this episode super short. I know the answer here,
Nicole. It's because they have thoughts. The Only reason your business is not working is because you have a brain that is thinking and it's providing you with thoughts that are not serving you. So I have to assume as we go down this list of 10 things that they're all based on thoughts or stories that people make up in order to try to make sense of things or just reasons that they think are reasons that really aren't reasons.
You know, I mean, you take it away. Yeah, A hundred percent. So what do you even think, we should have talked about this before the episode. What's the best way to go about this? 'cause we have 10 things we wanna talk on. So do we wanna just go one at a time and just start to just, what's the word I'm looking for?
Like vaporize the Sun? Yeah. I do think we should go through them one at a time and I think we should look at them and first of all, honor that people have brains and that your brain is gonna think. And I totally respect that because we all started somewhere with our brains. And so look at them one at a time and go as deep as we need to and,
and kind of see how far we get to. I think sometimes we can vaporize 'em. Sometimes you can like, you know, explain it a certain way and somebody will be like, oh my gosh, I never thought of it that way. But it's like a reframe, like a yeah reframe or a redirect or a shift just to help you see it.
Possibly maybe a different way. Absolutely. Okay, so let's start with number one. We hear this all the time. And that is, that won't work in my market. Oh, I just got chills. Okay. Literally, it could be just about, it could be about a pricing, it could be about a product suggestion, it could be about a marketing suggestion.
It could be about literally any suggestion in your business. And I think I have heard it for just about anything. Well, that won't work in my market. It's just like shuts it down before anyone even is allowed to try. Here's the problem with that thought. If you have that thought and it's fair, okay, I wanna acknowledge that. But if you have that thought about your market,
you have literally blocked everything before you're even out of the gate. Like, first of all, you don't know that you're just making it up. But if you think that thought, then nothing I tell you or Nicole gives you in terms of strategy is going to work because you don't believe that it is, it will work in your market. So it's a very,
this thought is very dangerous. It's insidious Nicole. It's, it really is. Yeah. 'cause it, it will block everything. And I firmly believe that there is a solution to literally every problem. So if you want to have a successful business, whatever your definition of success is, that possibility exists. But if you say, that won't work in my market,
you've just shut down all those other possibilities. And so Yeah, you're right. It's not gonna work in your market because you're not allowing it to work in your market. Exactly. Exactly. And lemme ask you this, if you're living in a market where you don't think it's gonna work, then why are, why are we even pursuing this? Honestly?
Like Yeah. Then there's, there's like no hope. Well, and I think part of the reason that people do this is because, you know, our brain is gonna brain to keep us safe, right? So this allows them to kind of like pull that like little safety card of, well it's, see, it's not gonna work. Like even if I try and it doesn't work,
then it wasn't my fault. That's it. I think it allows them to deflect any sort of blame or shame they might have for it not working out before they even try. Which of course, no one is going to shame you or blame you for trying, except maybe your own brain. So, so yeah. It's all, it is very insidious and complex what our brain does to ourselves.
Yeah, It is. Because you're right. It's like, if that's not gonna work in my market, then you, you like shrug your shoulders, you know, and you're like, see, there's nothing I can do. I have, I have no culpability in this because it's the market. So what do you guys want me to do that just doesn't work here?
And then you just like, I don't know what, put your feet up and eat bonbons and watch stories. I don't know. What do you do with that? You, there's just like, we've shut it down right out of the gate and I know that somebody is listening to this. I know you are. I see you, I respect you.
But you're thinking Heather and Nicole don't understand. No, for real. They don't understand. It won't work in My, they don't know my market. Yeah. They don't understand. Okay, so can you, I wanna get to, I wanna ask you a question, but also I live in a market. You are from the Pittsburgh market that's pretty small and lower on the socioeconomic scale.
And we both built six figure businesses. And our friend Jess Wassick lives 15 minutes for me in a really, really tiny little town, it is making six figures. So, you know, I always think if you could do it in Pittsburgh, you could do it anywhere. But I know that you talked to one of our Canadian friends on a podcast episode where I think she maybe has one traffic light or stop sign in herself.
I've actually interviewed numerous people. Marie Wolfram. Yes. Up in, oh gosh, it's somewhere eastern Canada, like very rural. And same thing with Courtney Bryson, who is down in the Georgia area, or Georgia, outside of Atlanta, but like way outside of Atlanta. I think she also has like, maybe not even a stoplight in her town.
Like it's a very small town, but small town, you know, there are options for everybody. Yeah. If you had a very small town and you're like, I'm only gonna serve people in my small town. Okay, maybe it won't work in your market 'cause you're not willing to expand your market. But you guys, have you heard of Ben Shirk?
He is an amazing, amazing artist. He does high school seniors, but he is an incredible composite artist. The things that he creates are just out of this world. He lives in the middle of Iowa, I Iowa, I a workshop from him. And I flew into this teeny tiny airport, rented a car, drove an hour, like it was a 20 minute drive to the closest hotel because his little town doesn't even have a stoplight.
It's just like this little old town in the middle of Iowa. And he has a ridiculously successful business. He has people flying in from New York and California and you know, Chicago on their private jets to come do sessions with him in the middle of Iowa. It literally can work anywhere, anywhere. There is always a solution, if you will, allow your brain to shift from blocking any solution to starting to ask,
all right, what is the solution? How can I make it work here? What is possible? You know, I think even, and usually this is people who live in smaller towns have this thought. But, so if you have the thought that won't work in my market, the way my brain works is if I'm in a small market, and by the way,
I was told, I don't know, 15 or 20 years ago, that I would never be able to charge $5,000 for a wedding in the Pittsburgh market. Instead of believing that and saying, oh my gosh, it's my market this Nicole, watch me watch me. This is what I thought. Two words. Watch me, watch me make this work in my tiny little town.
I actually live on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, so I'm not even like in the city. And my thought was like, well, why, why not? I don't understand why not? Well, I wanna give you like if, if you hear that and you're like, well that's because you have confidence, Heather, I don't have the confidence. Can you at least shift and say,
take this thought of that won't work. What in my market? So every time you hear yourself say, that won't work in my market, you hard stop and say, how can this work in my market? There we go. Perfect. Done. That's all you need to do. You can change, I don't know, one or two words. How can this work in my market?
That's it. And then your brain has to think about that instead of why it's not working. Oh, I got i'll, I'll best you one, if you can't get to that thought, I can create a thought even in between that. So, oh, okay, your, yeah, your thought is how can I make this work? Their thought is,
this doesn't work in my market. A middle thought is I keep thinking this won't work in my market. Mm. And just saying that separate out the thought from the, like that you are different. You're not your thoughts, you are not your thoughts. Like this is separate. I keep thinking that this won't work in my market. That's like that we're on this belief ladder,
I call it. Yeah. And then to your thought, which is how can I make this work? So if you wrote down those three sentences on a sheet of paper and you're looking at the one that you're currently thinking full, well, knowing it isn't serving you, and then you just go to the next one. I keep thinking that, just try it on,
you know, think it to yourself. Give it some time and space and then get to Nicole's thought of, how can I make this work? I promise you things will shift for you. Watch it. Yep. A hundred percent. All right. So that's number one. All right. Number two, Heather. My prices are already too high. And that's why no one's booking.
Oh, Is that right? How do you know that? Oh, because somebody told me they couldn't afford it. Okay. One person said they couldn't afford it. And couple that with the fact that maybe you're a little nervous or feeling insecure about your pricing, and all of a sudden that equals, no one will pay for my prices. They're too high.
It's like when, when people share that with me, I always just ask like, are you sure? Like, how do you know that's true? Yeah. Like really, how do you know that that's true? Or is that just a thought because you are thinking your prices are too high? Yes. Yeah. I mean, how many people, 'cause I,
I see it a lot too, where it's like, okay, an inquiry comes in and maybe they get ghosted or they don't hear back, or you know, they just say no, but without a reason. And we just assume we assign, the reason is us pricing Every Time, definitely pricing. And it's likely coming from the part that maybe, maybe we're still a little bit insecure about our pricing.
Like we haven't fully accepted the value of what we're offering, and we are not truly in belief that we have this incredible service and it is worth every penny. So if you had the belief that what you were offering was worth every penny that you were charging, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have this thought. I don't think it would even cross your mind.
Yeah, I like it would even enter your awareness because you would thinking I'm, I have the deal of a lifetime. Like this is absolutely worth what I'm charging. And every time Nicole, I believe this almost without exception, okay? There are always exceptions, but almost without exception, when somebody doesn't book you, it is not because of the price.
Even when they say that it is. So they might say like, oh, that's on my budget, or I can't afford that right now. Or Oh my gosh, how much do you charge? Or they gas, or whatever they do. You know, I think that's a polite way of just backing out of the interaction when they decide they don't wanna book you.
For example, I think, well, maybe I haven't explained the value well enough for them to understand, or maybe they just don't like me. Maybe they just don't like the photos. Maybe they don't like your hair, maybe they don't like your shirt. I don't know. Like it could be a whole bunch of things. But they cannot say that like a polite human would not say that.
So instead they always default and go to the easiest, which is, oh, I can't afford it. It's out of my budget. So first of all, the number of people that actually say that actually have said, listen, if you're, if you have had people say that, I'm really curious how often they've said that. 'cause I think it's really,
oh, I would say 10% max. Correct. So even so let's say 10%, by the way, Nicole and I like to make things up, but like we're educated guests 10% out of that 10% I, I bet 99% of the 10%, it's not, it's not the price. Yeah. It's just the polite way of saying, I don't want to hire you.
Which, which is fine, you know? But it could be they looked at your website and they decided they didn't like your photos, or they found somebody else that was a better fit. But I like firmly believe it has nothing to do with the price ever. So we could, if you believe me or trust me, okay, maybe you don't,
you could just eradicate this thought. Like, I'm just gonna choose not to think that ever, because it just doesn't serve me. Yeah. What's the best way, if you are thinking my prices are too high, I know me. Action girl. At your service here. The way that I come to the belief that know that they're not is I actually do the numbers.
I run the numbers, I figure out what I need to be charging to be profitable. And I know I didn't pull these numbers out of thin air or just copy some other photographer's pricing. Like I know that I created these, these numbers based on my goals of my business, which allows me to have belief in those numbers because I created them with intent.
Huh. And then the other way that helps me start to believe in my pricing is two things. Number one is anyone else charging that in my market or any market similar than mine? It doesn't have to be your market. You and I were both the most expensive in our niche for quite some time in Pittsburgh. So yeah. So you can look and see if there were other people in other niche or other markets similar to yours charging that.
But the other thing I love to do too is I love to remind myself of a time that I purchased something that was a little bit of a splurge that other people would've thought I was insane. For instance, A saddle, Maybe my horses, Your horses and your saddle. I was there with you, I don't know, last year or the year before,
and you were looking at new saddles for the horses, I think it was your horse. And I was like, are you insane? Like, what? What do you mean you're gonna spend, I don't even remember what doesn't matter, but like it was a lot of money on a saddle. Like, okay, first of all, I don't Have a,
which also, by the way, it was just a normally priced nice saddle. It wasn't even a custom saddle. They go much higher. Gosh. And so for me, of course, it wouldn't make sense for me to buy a saddle. Number one, I don't have a horse. You see how like that, that doesn't even make sense for someone like me because it's not a good fit.
Like if I'm a person without a dog and you're a pet photographer, well of course I'm gonna think you're too expensive. I don't have a dog. But like, it doesn't even make sense. So I like this, I do like this action girl situation of like, this is what it costs me. This is what I need to make, these are my prices.
I didn't pull them out of thin air. Like I'm not just making this crap up. But I gotta tell you, even if I were, it's ultimately the client's decision as to whether they pay or not. You just need to give them that information. But they determine the value. Like if they see your photos and your pricing and they're like, oh,
that makes sense, I want to pay it, then they will pay you. And if it doesn't, if it's not a fit for them, then they won't pay you. And all of that is okay. But if I go into it thinking, oh my gosh, I'm too expensive, nobody's gonna wanna pay, well, you just feel like crap and your energy is different.
But if you go into it thinking, I created this price list with intent, and I know that people are ready, willing, and able to pay, imagine how things would shift for you. And yeah, I want you to envision a time when you spent money, we started to get there, we got sidetracked when you spent money on something that you really loved that maybe was a lot and other people thought was crazy,
but you really loved it. Like drop into that energy of what you felt like when you were making that purchase. That's what our clients feel like. They already, like, they Wanna, yeah. To spend money with us. They want to give us money as an energetic exchange for what we are delivering to them. And they love it. Yes.
They want, they want to pay it. Yeah. Yeah. So if you don't believe that, find a situation in your life where you spent money on something that you are really excited for. And that's what our clients feel. So that I think can help you feel more secure in your pricing as well. All right, moving on to number three.
All right? Yes. I don't have a studio or a place to meet or whatever it is. I don't have the lens or the camera or the studio. I don't have insert random tangible item here. Okay. Like, like, so what I don't understand how that matters. Like why does that matter? Because then you're not an official photographer. Oh,
you're Not? Oh, that's a good question. I'm not professional enough. Oh, what then, are you suggesting that having like a certain number of lenses in a studio and locations, that's what equals professional Or, I think it stems from like, if I don't have a place to meet my clients, I can't do IPS, they're gonna think I'm not,
they're gonna think my clients, my clients are gonna think I am not professional if I don't have the space to meet with them, or I'm meeting them on location or whatever it is. I have heard this as a, I mean, very recently from a good friend of mine who has said on multiple occasions, she does IPS, and she's like, yeah,
but I can't charge more because I'm not professional enough because I don't have a studio or a place to meet. She just literally said that. And I, I'm just like, well, that's a thought. Yep. And what else could also be true? Maybe they don't even notice, maybe they don't even care. And I have one friend who does have a studio,
but actually goes to the client's home And she does her IPS that way and has a ton of, I mean, a ton of success. Like she's had it upwards of 200 K this year in her sales. So she's doing just now, she does happen to have a studio, but she chooses to go to their home. And I know a lot of photographers that don't have a studio that meet at various places.
One in particular I'm thinking of does not go to the home meets in coffee shops. Excuse me. And she's over six figures. She's, yeah, because she, she doesn't have that belief, that thought, remember, a thought is just a sentence in your brain, and you can look at it and question it and be like, but is that true?
And how do I know that? Like, how do I know if that's true? That is definitely a narrative that somebody is making up as a reason to, to thwart their own success. Yeah. And as someone who used to go to people's homes, have also met people in coffee shops on occasion, used to have a basement studio that people used to come to me,
have a nice, prettier sales room that people come to me and held sales sessions on Zoom. It doesn't matter. We've done it all. I've literally done all of it in my business, and I've had great sales on all of them. It really doesn't matter. The key is that you're serving your client in whatever manner your business is set up to serve them.
And maybe ask yourself, like when that question pops up in your brain, or if you're still thinking or believing it, I'm not professional because I don't have a space to meet them. I would ask myself, I would get really curious, like, oh, that's so interesting. What is that protecting me from? Like, why am I hanging onto that story?
Like, how is that serving me somehow? And it's usually some version of like, it keeps me safe, it keeps me small, you know, and then I don't have to go out and make things happen. But there's a reason that you're thinking it. And the good news is you can just choose to think something different. I'm not saying it's easy,
but you can choose to think, oh, well, I trust Nicole, and Nicole just told me she's done it all of the different ways, and she has data and evidence to support the fact that it doesn't matter. I could drop my own story and choose to believe that you could. I mean, that's an option. That's a really great point.
That literally all of these thoughts we're going over today are protecting you from something. Yes. So like asking yourself, when you find yourself with some sort of belief that's not serving you, if you can get really introspective and ask yourself, what is this thought protecting me of? What am I scared of? How is it like there is some way that it is serving you,
you know, not actually serving you for the goals you wanna reach, but there is some reason that your brain's like, Ooh, let's keep this thought because of this happens. Then what? Then, you know, maybe are more people looking at you, you're open to being more criticized. Is it something with change, like any relationship dynamics? Is it like,
there are so many like random things that have nothing to do with photography that your brain is keeping you safe because it's connecting these dots to things that don't, aren't connected, or a future possibility that it's scared of that would kick you out of the tribe, and then you get eaten by bear. Oh my gosh, the brain is such an interesting organ.
It is absolutely doing all those things beneath the surface, and it serves a purpose. You're right. And it's always some version of keep safe, stay in the tribe, stay in the cave, but it can get, you know, challenging to sort of unearth. No. How could that be protecting me? Of course. I don't wanna think it.
Well, no, not consciously. You don't wanna think it, but your brain is back there running the show, man, and you've gotta get a handle on it. You've gotta have a conversation. So one thing I tell my brain when I start to get squirrely or nervous about something is I tell my brain, Hey, we're safe. I'm gonna keep you safe.
I promise I'm gonna keep you safe. I know this is scary. I know this is challenging. I have conversations with my brain. Does that sound wacky? A little bit. But it's true. I mean, we all do. We should, because yeah, it, it, it's having a conversation with us. So we should talk back. All right,
let's move on to number four. And that is, I am not as experienced as others in my market, so therefore I can't charge that. What Does that mean? I don't understand. Well, they've been doing it a lot longer, or maybe their images are better, or, you know, so, so therefore I need to make my turn.
Oh, that's another one too, that I, it's like an underline. I don't think people are actually saying that I need to wait my turn. But there could be, I mean, it could be, I think this thought stems from either that thought of like, oh, I need to put in my time, but also this thought that I'm not experienced enough has an underlying like,
lack of self worth of what you're offering. A hundred percent. We actually have a friend that we're working with right now that has literally said that Nicole, she said, we're, I'm in line and there's people ahead of me. There's people ahead of me there. I've gotta wait my turn, I've gotta put in my time. I've gotta get more experience.
I have to do all of these things. And Michelle Crandall and I have both worked with her in Kosher, and we're like, really? Like, how, how? So what does that even mean? What does that look like? And Michelle had a really good point. This person is visualizing this line, right? And Michelle's like, but what if it's horizontal and like anybody and everybody can do whatever they want,
whatever they want, and you can Just step out of it and step forward. Correct. Like red, like a red rover. Yes. We called Nicole over. Yes, it's your time, but you get to decide, you're like both sides of that. You can call yourself over. No, I, you know, when people say things to me like that,
and this is very serious, you know, I'm not making light of it, but when they say that, like, I, I need more experience, I'm, I'm always like, why? Like what, according to whom and what does that even mean? Photography, police? Yes. Where and where are these people? Where are, where is this courtroom?
I need to figure it out because I wanna challenge it. I wanna get on one side of the bench and say like, your honor, I do not understand why. I mean, sometimes I'll say things to people and elevate, like in coaching calls, and it will stop them in their tracks when I'm like, but what do you mean? Like,
explain that. And when they start to verbalize it out loud, they start to catch the ridiculousness of the brain. And they're like, wait, that doesn't even make sense. So one of the things you can do with all of these thoughts is, you know, run them by us or save them out loud. You'll hear it, you'll be like,
wait, that doesn't even make sense. I'm totally making that up. What does that mean? I have to reach a certain point to be able to charge. Well, I, I'd love to know what is that point and what is the amount, and who determines that? And Especially because the charging is a choice on both sides. Like your client,
no one is making your client purchase from you. Nope. Like they are willingly looking at your price and saying, yes, let's move forward with this. So there, yeah, there, there is it. They, they aren't attached the experience versus the price. Right. And actually, I look back to some of my early work and what people paid me and quite embarrassed about that now.
Oh My gosh, it's horrifying. But you know, we had intent, some of it, I think you had a little more intent than I did because there were sometimes when I really was just making it up, you know, but I, you needed a baseline, you know, so you had to start somewhere. And I just didn't know. I mean,
it was like with good intentions, I honestly didn't know. So I'm just gonna try this out and see what works and let's have some fun and push the envelope. But I also like to keep things like light and fun. And I think photographers in general take this discussion entirely too seriously. Like just have some fun and see what happens. And you know,
you set a price, okay, you set a price and the client determines whether or not they're going to pay that. So what, why, why would you, who are you gonna ask? Like, am I charging? I think part of this comes from photographers not wanting to feel like they're taking advantage of somebody or like swindling them. Oh gosh.
Or being fraudulent, which again, if you are going in with the intent to serve your client to the best of your ability, and this is the price, even if you picked it out of thin air and they said, yes, I wanna pay it, that is none of those things because you're going in with the intent to serve and they chose to pay it out of their free will.
So we're all good here. Yeah. And you know what, furthermore, if you think that you are a fraud or fraudulent, I promise you, you aren't because you know, who doesn't think that they are a fraud? An actual fraud. Okay. Exactly. Exactly. So if you're thinking that you're, you're cool. Yep. Yep. All right,
let's do the next one. Number five, which is, I can't compete with the low prices others are offering. Yeah. Why not? What do you mean? Do you see how I ask that for every, every statement? Like, Okay, all right, all right, I'll, I'll play here. All right. Well, because Heather, if I'm charging $2,000 for a session as someone's charging $200,
like I can't compete with that. Like everyone's, everyone is going to choose the $200. Really? Because one time I had a bride hire me, and I always ask my brides like, how did you find me? Why did you hire me? And she said, I hired you because you were the most expensive in Pittsburgh. That was the only reason she hired me.
I said, did you look at the website? Like you like the photos, right? She said, yeah, of course it's fine. And I said, could you like expand on that? And she said, well, I figure you had to be the best. So there's a low pricing fallacy that also exists in terms of psychology. People think,
oh, if they're too low, they must not be any good. So you actually can and should compete with photographers in your market at different price points, because different price points are important to different types of clients. Amen. Yeah. I mean, you are completely serving the, like I this, oh man, this happens all the time. There was,
I don't know if it's still around, I forget what it was called. It was like a startup out of Silicon Valley that was super cheap photography. Like you go to the site and it's like 50 bucks, someone does a session on location and you can buy digital files for $15. And it was like, boom. And I remember, oh gosh,
this was before covid. People lost their minds. They're like, it's gonna destroy the industry. And how many times, how many times have you guys heard, especially if you are newer and you're doing a low cost all inclusive and some other photographer that's been in it for a while looks at you and says, you're destroying the industry. That feels good.
Yeah. Right. Right. It is total bs. There is no reason to feel bad if you're at that lower end of that pricing. I mean, I can get on this soapbox all day that there are actually four different levels of photography business from those just starting out, low cost, all inclusive. Like I'm trying to figure out how to work my camera and like if I even like this and if I wanna build a business and I need to create a portfolio,
but you don't have to do it all for free. You can charge and get paid while you bootstrap your business and grow it. And then you get to level two where you're like, all right, I wanna start bringing in some products. Because you can't stay at level one forever, 'cause you will burn out. And then you start bringing in some products.
You get your first a thousand dollars sale and then you go up to level three, which is the bread and butter, our two to $3,000 average sales. And then level four is like the total luxury market, completely optional. But the clients at each of those levels is different. And if you're serving the luxury market, those clients don't care how many $200 photographers are in the market.
If you're serving level three, those clients don't care how many $200 photographers are in the market, or how many new startups that are gonna give you some random photographer that you don't get to choose to show up and give you $15 digitals. They don't care. They don't want the digitals, they want the service you're providing. It's the same way that restaurants,
you know, we have high, high-end Michelin star restaurants. We have like the really nice steakhouse. We have kind of the general TGA Fridays Applebee's, and then we have like McDonald's, like they all exist. And some clients might even choose different ones at different times, but they all serve a different need in the market. And There's enough for everyone in each one of those spaces.
That's the key. You know, when you think, whenever you think any version of, I can't compete, whatever follows that is coming from scarcity, that there's like this limited number of clients that wanna purchase at that level. And I just don't believe that exists even in the smaller markets because there, there are luxury restaurants and places to stay in all types of examples of that in every market.
So whenever you think that, and you're like, if you could catch, like is that coming from scarcity or abundance? Like ask yourself that question. When you have a thought that doesn't feel good, and when it comes from scarcity based on fear, you can almost guarantee that it's a lie. Yep. Like fear also always, sorry, presents itself as a lie.
So you think, well, there's not enough people, so they're all gonna want the really cheap photographer. Oh my gosh. Not, not my clients, not some of my, the people in my market don't, don't want the cheapest photographer. These brides that I worked with were so high-end, they were like, this is not this. Listen, this is what they were.
They were disgusted by that market. They were just like, I'm not, I am not. My wedding is too big of an event and too important to go to that level. I want the most expensive photographer there is. And in the case of the bride that hired me, I don't even know that she really cared about the work. Yep. Which is interesting.
It was just crazy. Yeah, totally. Yep. Oh my gosh. So we're already 33 minutes into this and we have five more beliefs. So I think what we're gonna do is we're gonna make this a two-parter. So we are gonna see you guys next week for the remaining five. Just, what are we calling these? The most common unserved,
un serving thoughts that photographers have, The most common thoughts that are holding you back from growing your business. Yeah, So here we tackled. That won't work in my market. My prices are already too high. I don't have a studio. I'm not as experienced or talented as others, and I can't compete with the low prices that others are offering. So we all know that that's all a lie.
And it's just thoughts. Let's choose something else. We are gonna wrap this one up and we will see you next week. We're gonna dive into the next five.