Are you chasing luxury clients, but stuck spinning your wheels with low ticket sessions and endless hustle? This episode of the Professional Photographer podcast shatters the myth that luxury branding is all about your location, client list, or even the technical perfection of your images.

Episode Highlights 🎤💡:

(09:31) - Price for the Photography Business You Want

(15:59) - Create a Premium Client Experience

(38:36) - Stop Capping Your Photography Sales

Connect with Pat Miller ⬇

LinkedIn | Website

Connect with Lindsay Walden ⬇

LinkedIn | Website | Instagram | Facebook

I'm Pat Miller and this is the Professional Photographer Podcast. You see those studios online that do luxury photography. It seems effortless for them to bring in a client and make a ton of money with every session that they shoot. And you think, I'd love to do that, but I can't. I live here and there's not enough rich people or my photography isn't good enough yet. I've only been doing this a couple of years or I don't have the education. I'm not at this level or certified or whatever it might be. But what if all those assumptions are wrong? Today we're talking about the signature elements of a luxury photography brand. And Lindsay Walden is our guest. She teaches people how to make that exact transition from where you are to luxury brand so you can grow your studio beyond your wildest dreams. Lindsay's gonna give us the five pillars you need to conquer in order to become a luxury photography brand. And this episode is fire. Lindsay standing by. We'll talk to her next. Lindsay, welcome to the show. It's great to see you. How have you been? What's going on?

I have been amazing. Thank you so much. How are you doing?

I'm great. I'm excited to talk to you today because we get questions about our topic all the time. The signature elements of a luxury photography brand. But before we get into the topic, everyone needs to know you like I know. You tell them who you are and what you do.

I'm Lindsay with Lindsay Walden Photography. I am a Dallas or Colleyville based studio. I primarily focus on maternity and newborn. Those are my main niches with a subspecialty of underwater, which is super cool. Yeah. And I definitely cater to a high end luxury type client who is really looking for that extra level of service and an easy experience for their photography sessions.

And that's where we get to dive in today. Because when someone says, I run a luxury photography brand, obviously everyone wants to know about that. Because when you hear luxury, people hear, boy, that could make a lot of money. So when people are asking you questions about a luxury photography brand and how do I get those luxury clients, do they just assume you're better at marketing than they are? Is that what they most frequently ask you about?

I think so. I think either they're worried, is my work good enough? Or how do you find these clients? And then the truth of the matter is most of these clients find me going back to the first thing. Whether or not your work is good enough, it really isn't so much about the level of work, obviously, like, we want to provide a product that we can stand behind. It's more about how we make clients feel. That's what the luxury clients are looking for. A lot of it is emotion based. So. So yeah, hopefully we'll get into that today.

Definitely will. I do want to get right after that first point you make though. Here's an image that you take and you could easily sell this image for $50 or $500 depending on the customer experience. I mean, to your point, the image has to be great. There is a level of quality that needs to happen, but then it's how it's presented to the clients and the overall experience. Not necessarily. You can't be a luxury photographer until you have your. And you're a master photographer. Like, you can't. It's not a matter of qualification, it's a matter of that customer experience.

Absolutely. Honestly, one thing that I show a lot of my students are photos from when I first started as a luxury brand because I made that change overnight. Went from being very inexpensive to starting over a thousand just out of sheer necessity to keep the business open. Um, and my work was not good. It was, it was pretty sad. So pretty much everyone that I've mentored, I've shown them those photos and their work was better than mine was at that point. So I'm usually not worried about that. Usually once they figure out that this is something they need, their work has come along well enough that they can provide a good great images for their clients. It's really just refining the level of service that we're offering and figuring out how to create a brand that will resonate with people who are looking for a luxury experience and how to create pricing that will attract those clients.

And that's the first pillar that we're going to get into. But I'm curious, can you share a little bit more about your story, how you went from not luxury to luxury? I think that would be instructive for people that are watching the episode.

Sure. I started out the way that many photographers will start out. It was kind of a hobby just to make a little extra cash. I remember a couple years in, sitting across the kitchen table with, with my husband and I just finished my taxes and I'd made a profit of something like $314 for the year, like, and it was a profit and I was kind of proud of having made a profit. And I remember him looking at me and saying, babe, you know, if you want a real job, why don't you come work for Me, and he runs a golf course. He's like, you're a cart girl. You. You're cute. You could be a cart girl. You're cute. You'd make a lot of money in tips. And he regrets that. I think he immediately regretted that. After getting over how offended I felt, I really sat with what he was saying and realized I was taking all of this time away from my family, missing kids, soccer games on the weekends to photograph these clients who I didn't even know, and giving them so much of myself. And really, for what? For very little money on the back end. And I asked him, give me a few months, let me see if I can change things around. Had a lot of different influences that helped me to see that, like, maybe I could go more luxury. I was already honestly trying to provide a luxury experience because that was my personality. I wanted my clients to be happy. I wanted them to have a great experience with me. I was just trying to do it at a volume that was not sustainable at the price that I was doing. So I overnight revamped my pricing. I was charging $250, and clients would get a CD and it had, like, the little pretty label on it. A lot of us remember those. And they would get a CD with all of their edited images to charging 250 just as a booking fee. That was just to get them on my schedule. And then I had collections that were starting over a thousand at the time. That was a really scary change just overnight. And I had a lot of family, friends, other photographers around me telling me that I couldn't do that, that it wasn't going to work, and that was really, really hard. But that very first client that booked and spent over a thousand, like, that's all it took. Then I was hooked because I was able to provide my clients with a better experience. I improved as a photographer so much quicker than I would have if I hadn't had a budget for it. I could afford the better equipment, I could afford the better education to serve my clients better. So it literally changed everything for me overnight. It was amazing.

Someone's watching this, and they thought before you said how your family gave you feedback, they thought, well, I could never do that. When you did it and you had someone pay these new, elevated prices, how long did it take for you to feel like, okay, this is what I'm going to do moving forward? I am now validated as a luxury photographer. This is where I'm going. How long did that trans transformation take for you?

The very first client, like, you have one Person who comes in that says that just writes you a check or at the time or. Or hands you their credit card and is willing to spend thousands. And why would I want to go back ever to doing anything else? It's very rewarding. And the other thing I would say is luxury clients, for the most part, because they are investing so heavily, really view you as an expert and trust you. And so that changed because I had a lot of those clients when I was on the very inexpensive end that were very demanding, would come to me with what they wanted their session to be, which wasn't necessarily even my style. And that just doesn't happen anymore. Clients are coming to me because they trust me. So it's just a different type of client.

It's like that meme that circles around small business. The $300 client expects an answer in 60 minutes and calls you at midnight and demands a quick Turnaround. And the $3,000 client says, check set, thanks. And that's it. That holds up for you?

Yeah, 100%. And I mean, occasionally I have clients who are particular. And I love that because so am I. Like, that's the brand. That's who I am. I was going to want to please them anyways, but I wouldn't say that they're difficult. They are really lovely people. And maybe it's also like when you're getting paid thousands, like, I'm willing to edit things that maybe I wouldn't edit for a couple hundred dollars. So it makes a difference in my mindset as well.

Well, we have five pillars of a luxury brand that we get to go through. And we've touched a little bit on the first pillar, which is pricing. So walk us through the mindset and the strategy of pricing the business. So you are becoming a luxury brand.

Sure. So our pricing really has to start with our costs. And one thing that I think photographers forget to do is to look at their goals for their business when they're running their cost of doing business. So what I teach is if you have the goal to be in a commercial space, maybe you have a home studio right now. You incorporate the cost of that commercial space into your cost of doing business now. So it's reflected in your pricing. And then you'll get into that space a lot sooner, so long as you are charging what you should in order to be in that space. So I did that for a full year. I had a luxury brand out of a home studio charging luxury prices. I had clients spending five figure. Five figures on their collections. And it was actually really Hard to then move out of the home studio because we were making so much more money without the expense of a commercial space. But moving into the commercial space also added value and helped to increase the brand visibility. So it definitely made sense, even though it was a higher cost. But I already had that incorporated into my pricing because I ran that within my cost of doing business. So that's kind of the first thing. The second thing that I think is really important to mention is pricing psychology. So when a student asks me, how do I attract, how do I find these luxury clients? One of the first things that I'll ask them is what their pricing is. Because if we are priced too low, a luxury potential luxury client may not consider you at all. And I learned that with one of my very first clients who booked with me. Again, this is in a home studio. I've just raised my prices. I invited her in for a design consultation. We went through everything together, planned out the session, and I go over pricing with her. During that, she pointed at my top collection, said, yeah, that. That one looks really great. That's probably what we'll go for. And I remember telling her, like, oh, yeah, that one's really popular. Like, I never sold it before. Good choice. But my heart's racing because I'm just feeling so, like, uncomfortable with. With everything because it was so new. And before she left, she gave me a hug, and she kind of whispered in my ear. She said, I knew you'd be good because you're expensive. And I almost laughed because literally a month prior, I was charging so much less, and my work was not different from a month prior. But it helped me to understand that this particular client, if she had come to me the month prior, probably wouldn't have booked with me. She would have worried that there was something wrong. Why is this so cheap? Even though I would have been trying to provide that same level of service that I was now at that point offering, not much had changed other than my pricing and my mentality about things. So hopefully that helps people to understand, like, pricing is a really pivotal change that needs to happen in order to attract those luxury clients from the client side.

By spending a lot of money, are they doing their best to ensure they're getting the highest quality? It is a reinforcement to them that they're making a positive choice with the investment. That's why it resonates 100%.

Yeah. And I. I feel like that doesn't necessarily mean you are the best photographer in your area. It just means, like, when I first made that change, I was probably one of the highest priced newborn photographers, if not the highest priced newborn photographers in the area. And that gave me a competitive advantage because I was seen by a lot of people as the best. I know I wasn't. I know where my weaknesses are. I'm very, very aware of those. But it didn't matter to the clients. They viewed me as the best. And those are the types of clients who were looking for the best. They wanted the best and so they're willing to spend quite a bit for it. Now. The experience, the images, yes, those. I want to provide something that they love. And none of my clients have walked away without loving their images.

Right.

But that, that really helped me in the beginning especially now I have a lot more competition because a lot more newborn photographers have figured out the luxury branding and, and honestly, I've trained a bunch of them too in my area and I love them. They're all my, my favorite people. But yeah, it makes a huge difference.

Last thing on pricing, do you think this mindset of I will charge higher prices when is perhaps cultural bleed from our corporate experience where we can get paid more when we're there longer and we have more experience. Whereas you were saying I wasn't the best, but I was charging the most, which made them think I was the best. And we can just do things like we can charge higher prices because we know we want to service this market. Is this like a beaten into our head over years and years of working for other people? That's why we do this.

Absolutely. And honestly, it can even start probably from our childhoods. It's just money blocks that we develop because of different experiences. The way we were raised, the way that people talked around about money around us, the way our parents talked about money, a lot of that. You know, this is where like therapy is helpful, specifically surrounding money blocks or having a coach, a mentor who will push you beyond that and help you to ultimately like, I didn't price myself so that I would be the highest because I wanted to be perceived as the best. I priced myself based upon my goals for my business and my cost of doing business. And it just happened to be the highest. And that's just what it had to be in order for me to provide the level of service that I wanted to for my clients in the location where I wanted to do that. Now that ended up having that benefit that I can see in hindsight, but I didn't realize it at the time. It was just do or die. Either I raise my prices to this level and provide this Level of service. Or I go work for my husband

at the golf course as the beer girl.

Yes.

And he's still alive. Like seriously?

Yeah. Poor guy. He actually threatens every once in a while to come work for me because he's jealous now because I make good money and I'm my own boss and I can take off whenever I want to. I actually play a lot of golf and he complains I play more than him. He does now.

So sweet revenge. That's amazing.

It is a little sweet.

You mentioned a few times how important the experience is, and that's pillar two, the customer experience. And I want to reflect back to something that you did that I think is a block for people. Well, I can't provide a luxury experience if I don't have a fancy pants studio. That's not the case, right?

No, not at all. It's really about how we make them feel. So what I try to do for my clients is to really reflect upon and go dive deep on what their experience is. Like, what are they feeling, what are they thinking from beginning to end? That's something we call it mapping the client experience or the client journey. That's something that I really focus on intensely. And at least once a year we review. We have like a 30 page document that is all about the client experience from their perspective. What are they thinking, what are they feeling? And look for opportunities to make it easier. What are potential pain points that they're feeling at every stage along the way and how can we alleviate those pain points and make it easier? I play this game in the studio of what can a client potentially forget to bring that we can provide. And so we have all kinds of. Some of them feel really random, but they're things that at some point somebody maybe forgot that I was like, oh, we can provide that. So we have so many things, especially when it comes to newborn photography, so many different things that we provide just in case they forget. And clients love that. They're honestly kind of surprised, like, oh my gosh, you have this already. Um, we just want to make it as easy as possible for them. The other thing is looking at things I, I tell clients, especially if they're coming in for more, like a family session. One thing that I, is really important to me is to kind of end that generational trauma from family portraits, because so many of us have experienced that. Like, it's just not something that many of us enjoy. And my favorite things, especially with dads, is when they we're done and they're like, that's it. We're done. That was great. That was so easy. That's my goal. I love it when I hear that. So when clients are writing reviews for me, it's usually something about the experience. They might hopefully mention the images and how much they love them, but they will always talk about the experience as well. So that's super important.

Can you think of something traditional that photographers do that you don't do? Because it's really putting a burden on the client, and you've changed your process. Maybe it's a way that you communicate with them, something that you do the day of the shoot that is. Is traditionally the way photographers do it, but you know that that's a burden on the client, so you stop doing it.

I mean, honestly, it's more of the sum of a lot of small things that we do versus one great big thing that we've changed. So just to rattle off a few, one is offering professional hair and makeup for women that just not having to get yourself ready in the morning is great, especially if it's a new moment. So professional hair and makeup wardrobe, even, like, you don't necessarily have to provide the wardrobe, but if you can help them coordinate that and take that kind of off of them. I have. Occasionally I'll have big family extended session, extended family sessions. I don't advertise them because it's not what I want to be doing, but one of my favorite things to do for them is to gather together a style guide, and then we include links to the clothing. So if you have a family of 50 and you have all these kids of different ages, like, here are some different potential outfits, so they don't even have to think, just click the button and buy it. So we've tried to go above and beyond in how we can make that experience easier for them. I have an assistant that works with me, so, like, parents aren't having to necessarily be the one standing behind me and getting kids to laugh and smile. I want them to just relax and enjoy the experience.

Sounds great. Okay, so we talked about the experience. We talked about pricing. Pillar number three is or are the images the actual images that you're shooting. So as a luxury photographer, do you have to shoot differently than someone that isn't?

I mean, I. I'm shooting very intentionally, which I think, hopefully most photographers are, depending on the type of genre that you're photographing. I shoot to sell, so I'm always looking at improving the way I'm shooting to create images that I know my clients can't walk away from. I do in person sales, and I'm heavily focused on selling digital images as well as wall art and albums. But my digital images are. Are priced very well, so that if a client comes in and they're focused on getting as many digital images as they can, that I'm very profitable with that. So it's important that I have as many images that they can't walk away from as possible, because that can really impact a good sale for me. So I'm shooting for unique, distinct, meaningful images. I tell clients that if they're coming in for, like a maternity session, that I want them to pick as many looks as they love. I want to create the session of their dreams. And. And then ultimately I want them, the images that they're picking out to feel like they're looking through the pages of a magazine where it's not the same look over and over again, just a slightly different expression or slightly different pose. So we'll do a couple poses with each look and then move on quickly to the next look because then it. It feels different. Whereas if I'm shooting the same thing and just changing one small thing about it, that's easy to narrow down. So creating those galleries that are really hard to walk away from, meaning distinct, meaningful images.

I love the mindset of creating a luxury magazine shoot. I want this to be the shoot of your dreams. It sounds so much more luxurious than, well, you get two changes of clothes and 60 minutes in the studio. You're not giving them options based on what you're willing to do. You're giving them the opportunity to do whatever they wish, which goes back to how they feel about the experience and how they feel about the session. I'm sure that makes a big difference.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. Going back to the experience, like, making things easy, but also what I found is the way that someone feels during the session has an impact on that sale. So if, like, back before, I'd really refined my experience, a lot of times parents would maybe be watching while I'm photographing baby and babies. They're feeling stressed out because babies may be a little bit gapped, sassy or whatever. Now moms are in getting their hair and makeup done while I'm photographing baby. If dad and older siblings are coming, they don't come until I'm finished photographing baby. So they don't even really know if I have a baby who's being fussy because I know I'm going to get beautiful images no matter what. I just. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer with Some babies or sometimes we need to swaddle them. I don't want the parents to worry. So I love when moms will sometimes comment like, this is, like, one of our My favorite memories from when they were a newborn. Like, it was such a great experience. I'm like, well, yeah, because you were in getting your hair and makeup done and just getting pampered that whole time. So they're having this really enjoyable experience, and that translates into beautiful images. If we had an image that was, like, a really hard one to get because kids were fussing, they might comment, and it might not get picked because they are associating how they felt when that image was taken.

So I had something just hit me that I'm sure is so intuitive to you because you've been doing it forever. But there is a whole new level of trust that your clients have to have with you if you're with their newborn while they're not in the room. That just seems to be another level of building a relationship with the client. Is that something that you're just naturally talented at doing, or are you intentional about building that level of trust?

We're super intentional about it. And I will say we're not in the same room, but, like, this is my studio behind me. We're just shooting out here. And then right behind me is a hair and makeup room. We leave the door open. So sometimes mom will hear the baby fussing, because if baby gets really loud and, like, is outright crying, and I have a hair and makeup artist that's in there that she knows, she will say things like, don't worry. Lindsay's so great with babies. Like, your baby's gonna be fine. Or. And if baby starts is fussing too much, like, maybe it's because I'm changing their diaper. I'll have my assistant go in and just let her know we're just changing baby's diaper or something like that. So he got mad because we were using wipes on them or whatever. Like, just reassuring them throughout. But, like, also, like, baby's doing great. Best baby ever. I'll go in every once in a while during a shoot. Once I have baby in, like, a cute outfit, or they're swaddled and they just look darling. And I'll come in and just show mom, and they just get so super excited. So again, like, they're just feeling great about how things are going. It doesn't really matter what is happening. Like, they don't need to know if I'm really struggling to get this particular Pose or whatever it might be. So part of building that trust though is I do a phone consultation with every inquiry that comes in that will get on the phone with me. So they get to talk to a real person and then I invite them for an in person and design consultation before their session. This is huge because getting to meet me in person before handing me their brand new precious baby is going to set me apart from any of the volume photographers who you just get an email from them. So we have met, we have talked in person, talked extensively where hopefully like by the end of that design consultation, they give me a hug and can't say, they'll say how much they can't wait for their session. Yeah. So we're building a lot of trust in advance now. Family members are welcome to come and watch as well, but usually they get kind of bored and we'll go in. I make the hair and makeup room very enticing. So if a dad is coming or grandma's coming, they'll come out and watch for a little bit. But the food and snacks and TV and comfortable couch where they can take a nap are all in there and make a room. And we kind of do that intentionally because I prefer to not work with someone looking over my shoulder. I can if I need to. We also work with a really big 86 inch PLM during newborn sessions. So they're going to get in my way and they realize pretty quickly that they're in my way and so they'll usually go in the other room. So it works out great.

Hey, dad, we've got the game on over here.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

Yeah. It doesn't take much to get. Get them to want to go sit down.

Yeah. Pillar four is the finished product. So we've got them in. They trust us. You've done the shoot, now it's time to deliver the finished product. What makes it luxury?

Again, it's about the experience. So doing in person sales, a lot of people just view that as a way to make more money or a lot of photographers do. And it's so much more than that. It really is about the level of experience that we're providing for clients. I am adding an extra layer of service for them. I'm there to help them them pick out their images. Sometimes they. Not sometimes. Almost every session they will ask my opinion as they're trying to pick between certain images about which one I prefer, which I love because I usually have a preference. They are looking for guidance in selecting images, guidance in selecting the type of wall art that they might have or their album and how it's designed, all of those things. And that can feel intimidating for a photographer who's never done that before. But let me tell you, you know, you figure it out really quickly. You're able to become that expert just after like your third album you've made, you're now an expert because they've probably never made one. So it's, it's really not hard. But it adds a level of service for clients that they love. I will say from a product standpoint, we just want to make sure that we're offering our clients products that will stand the test of time. For a little while there, I was offering a couple lower end products and realize like once when a toddler accidentally ripped one in half during a consult, like, gosh, if that happens in my studio, it's gonna happen in their home as well. So we are very intentional about the types of products that we will offer. These need to be things that really are high quality. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have the most expensive products from labs, just things that they can, you can stand behind. And then I will include our digital images. That is a really important part of what we're creating because that's what we create. And I want to make sure that we convey that to clients that the value of what we're not selling them an empty album or an empty portfolio box, we're selling them an album full of the beautiful images of their child. And that's what creates the value, is what we are creating. So don't diminish the value of your digital images and focus only on selling your wall art necessarily. We can put a lot of value on what we're creating as well.

I want to double click on digital images because We've interviewed over 100 photographers on this show and it seems like every time digitals comes up, everyone has a hot take. You're valuing your digitals high and you're giving them the opportunity to buy them. Some won't. So talk to someone that won't sell their digitals with why they should be and how it adds profit to the session.

I mean, I don't like to tell other photographers what to do because I don't think there is one right way to do it. Like, we all serve different types of clients. What I have found for my clients is all of them want digital images. I think in 15 plus years of doing this, I've only ever had one client who said, I really don't need digital images. So we sold her a la carte, an album and some wall art. But everyone else has, like to a man, they all want those digital images. They're important to them so much so, especially for the newborn photography genre, like they have a hard time walking away from any images. So one thing that I offer in my top collections is I create a slideshow of the full gallery of digital images that comes as a gift in my top collections. It makes this super valuable because it's a way for them to narrow down images to pick out their favorite digitals to keep for forever and to have also in an album. But they don't have to really say no to any images, which is super hard when you have a brand new baby. You just literally are taking thousands of pictures of them every day. It's super addictive. So do you have to give away digital image? Don't give them away ever. Let me reword that. Never, ever give away digital images. I've kind of just flipped the script a little bit. So in my collections they come with a certain number of digital images and then those same images printed in either an album or in a portfolio box. So they're all getting some kind of printed material, whereas a lot of photographers say buy the album or buy the wall art and then you get the digital image. I've just put the emphasis on the digital images which I create and the value on them. And so buy the digital images as part of a collection and you get them printed in an album. If they add extra digital images, then those also get printed in the album. So it's just a different way of doing it. It works well for me because my clients very much want digitals. I will occasionally have clients who come in and they only want the digitals. So we will replace the album that comes with the collection. We also have an artwork credit that can be used for anything. So instead of getting wall art, they use that to add more digital. And then I have a purely digital collection of images, which is a really low cost of goods sold. So I don't mind that at all because I have my digitals priced well. So I have a client who last year spent $16,000 plus on digital images for a holiday session. Wow. One client. Wow. It's kind of crazy, but this is the client who's been coming to me for years now and every year wants to the digitals only. I'm really careful to not say just digitals because that's kind of triggering for me. So digitals only for her collection has always spent five figures plus for her digital only images. So guess what I do every year when they come in, we create the most amazing session of their dreams and we keep adding sets.

Yeah.

And that's how that's sale has continued to grow each year.

Now see, by watching the professional photographer podcast, you too can get that sounds like a good client. We gotta, we gotta get a few more of those around here. All right. Pillar five is marketing. That's the presumption of people when they hear about a luxury brand studio that it's just a marketing play and you've shown us how it's not, but marketing is a part of it. So where does that fit?

Yeah, I mean from a branding perspective, it's about every aspect of your business. You really have to be careful about not diminishing the luxury brand by doing things that are focused towards non luxury clients. So that's one big mistake I see a lot of photographers doing is you're trying to market to luxury clients but your price is too low or you're offering mini sessions all the time. So what that just is really confusing your brand and you're going to keep attracting those low end clients like you're doing these mini sessions and trying to upsell them and maybe you're getting some of them that will, but you probably could have booked those clients at full price without doing a mini session is the other ones that just aren't going to spend more. So from a brand perspective, we're looking at every aspect from our website to the way that I market, to the, my pricing, obviously the experience and making sure everything is aligned as a luxury brand. For some people that, that definitely not for some people. For most of us it's not something that just comes naturally where we understand all of that. One thing that's helped me is to just study other luxury brands. I get the newsletters for all of the main luxury brands out there and I see the way that they talk about themselves. I'm not seeing, you know, sale, sale, sale, discount, discount, discount. We're seeing more refined marketing focused on the client, focused on the experience that they're having. If anything. I think I just got a email from one of the luxury brands and it was a private sale where it's not even a discount. It's just we have this new line that because you're on our email list, you get first chance to look at it. So creating exclusivity is part of being a luxury brand. You're just not focused on price. That is what the lower end of the market is. Doing is they're competing on price, so they're focused on price. You're never going to really even be talking about your price as a luxury brand until you need to tell clients how much things cost.

Right. Which in your experience, if you're working with the right client, they, they take it seriously. But it's okay, fine, let's, it's going to be great. Right? I trust you. You're going to make it great and they just move on.

Yeah, yeah. When I do a phone consultation, I will talk about the experience and then at the very end go over pricing with them and by the time I get to that pricing, if they're the right type of client, they don't care. It doesn't matter how much it costs. It truly like, they're like, you are the photographer for me. This sounds amazing. Anything you say from here on out, like it's not going to matter. So I can give them kind of my, I usually tell them my collections and the range of the collection so they have an idea of like, I don't want them to, I don't like giving a starting point so that they're like set with that in their head because realistically no one spends that amount. The luxury clients, especially right now, the way the economy is, the people who are booking with me are always buying one of my top collections. I don't have many people who are coming in where it's a stretch for them and they're buying one of the lower collections because the economy is just tough. So that kind of mid level people who would be able to sometimes stretch are kind of having to hold their money back and aren't booking with me. Which means that my bookings have slowed down but my average has gone up significantly because the people who are booking can more than afford it. And we'll buy those top collections and go well over them. Which means as a luxury brand, I can weather through just about any type of economy because of the type of clients that I'm serving. They're just not impacted by changes in the economy, good or bad. However you feel about that. It just means that my, my business will be fine. I won't be spending as much on investing and reinvesting back in the business on things that maybe in years where we have plenty, maybe less vacations and less golf, but still don't a lot.

No, no, no. Never less golf. No, never.

Let's go.

We don't need electricity for the studio, but never less golf. Not an option.

That's great.

One thing that's great is that you mentor photographers through this. So I want to hear a real world studio example that's not. You tell me the story of someone that you mentored from not a luxury photographer to a luxury photographer and how they got there.

Gosh, I mean, that's what I do. So there's so many of them. One from this year who came in for my workshop, I would say that she was maybe in that mid level market, which is where a lot of photographers are finding themselves. I think maybe it's a little bit of a money block issue where people realize, okay, I've got a little bit of experience or a lot of experience, so I recognize I cannot do this high volume at a very inexpensive price. But they're not quite over a thousand or they're, they're maybe their starting prices are just below a thousand. And she was struggling one because of the economy, just struggling with bookings. But they were established, they'd been around for a long time and providing a great experience for their clients. Really all it took was revamping her pricing and maybe doing a few things to change her marketing. And within a month she had her first $10,000 plus sale. And she'd never had one prior to that and very well experienced photographer. And within three months she'd had like four. So I was, that was one of those cases where I was like, wow, you really just needed to make these small refinements to your pricing. One mistake that I see a lot of established photographers doing is they basically have a, a collection or some way where clients can get everything for one price. You're totally capping your sales when you do that. Like, why would anybody spend more than that? They can get basically everything they want with this one price. So we get rid of that. We price digital images more appropriately and just not create like that collection where it's like, we'll sometimes call it like the sun, moon and stars collection where you're like, oh, if somebody spent this amount, I would be so happy. Well, you are until you realize that now nobody's going to spend more than that. So my top collection is 6900 right now and my average is 8000. So that just tells you my, my clients are spending more than that because it's available. We just want to make it an option where if someone wants to come in and spend 20 grand for their photo shoots, for the beautiful images you created for them, for the wall art for they just want it all that we make it possible that if they want to let them. Yeah, please Please, please, please.

That would be great. We get to see you@imaging USA 2027. So what are you going to speak on when you're there? Really excited about it.

Yeah, I'm going to be talking about marketing to the luxury client, which spoiler, we will talk a little bit about pricing and branding and the experience because to me that is all part of your marketing as well. But we will go more into specifics of the different kind of pillars to my marketing plan which is pretty comprehensive. I find that as a business, when we rely upon just one or two things for marketing, that can be great for a time, but at some point usually one of those things will start to falter for you. So we want to make sure that we have a very robust, well rounded marketing program or marketing plan for our businesses. So we'll be talking more about that. I'm super excited.

Definitely be there for that. If someone wants to stay connected with you between now and then, how should they follow along?

Absolutely. On my website I have a whole section for photographers. I have a newsletter which we send out regularly that has updates of different places where you can learn. I also do little mini micro marketing lessons and branding lessons on each of those. And then I have a photographers group online the for luxury photographers or people who are wanting to get into luxury photography where I also include a lot of tips and tricks that we use and just encouragement because sometimes it's hard being a business owner and just wanting people to know. Photographers know you're not, you're not alone out there for sure. For sure.

What a great conversation. Lindsay, thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate it.

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Professional Photographer Podcast. Now you know what you need to do. Click like and subscribe. That way, we will pop up in your feed next time we go on the air. And leave us a comment. What did Lindsay say that changed the way that you think about becoming a luxury brand? All of that feedback is helpful for us as we continue building the show. One other thing, if you're not yet a member of Professional Photographers of America, you are truly missing out. PPA offers great resources like equipment, insurance, top notch education and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. It's perfect for photographers who are serious about growing their business in a sustainable and profitable way at PPA. You belong here. Discover more about membership at ppa.com. That's PPA. I'm Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community and the host of the show. Thanks for coming by. I really appreciate you checking it out. We'll see you right here next time. Take care.