In 2022, I doubled my photography prices. I was booking out a few months and knew I wanted to be able to elevate the client experience, so I ripped the bandaid off.

In this episode, I'm sharing how I doubled my prices and tips for elevating your business and still attracting dream clients.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 Upcoming Masterclass Info

003:28 Doubling Photography Prices

06:23 Mindset Shift for Higher Pricing

08:40 Positioning as a High-End Photographer

10:31 Enhancing Client Experience

12:10 Success Stories

CONNECT WITH MADDIE:

Instagram

Website

LINKS:

I'm hosting a live masterclass, Three Secrets to Booking Brand Photography Clients, on October 17th at 12pm Central. Sign up here! (Replay available if signed up)

Full Show Notes

MacBook Pro Microphone: On October

17th at noon central, I am hosting

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a free live brand new masterclass

called the three secrets to

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booking brand photography clients.

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Whether you are booking your first

brand photography client or your

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next brand photography client.

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If you currently do not have leads

coming in every single day, every

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single week for brand photography,

and you want those leads, you want to

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be booking brand photography clients.

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You need to come to this masterclass,

it's going to be about 90 minutes.

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I'm going to go through the

training and I'm also going to

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leave plenty of time for Q and a.

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So you can ask any questions

that you might have.

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On how we can be getting these

brand photography clients.

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And I will be there with you every step of

the way to answer all of your questions.

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At the end of this masterclass doors will

be open for my group coaching program.

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Rebrand rebrand is now a

12 month group program.

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That means you're going to come into

the program within the first 90 days.

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We're going to get you your first

four figure session or your next four

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figure session for brand photography.

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And then you have the remaining however

many months that is nine months.

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You have the remaining nine months.

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To be in this community, be supported.

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Learn how to take your brand

photography business to the next level.

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Historically rebrand

has been 12 weeks long.

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And my clients get amazing

results in 12 weeks.

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It takes the average student 74 days to

charge four figures for brand photography.

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But I was noticing that I want

to be there for you longer.

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I want to be able to not just help

you hit that first four figure

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session I want to help you do.

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I want to help you book a five figure

session and I want to help you.

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Create a six figure brand

photography business.

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Reruns moving to a 12 month community

is going to allow me to do that.

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And I am so excited for it.

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So you're going to want

to be in this masterclass.

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You can go to Maddie.

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sean.com/masterclass to register.

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I'm going to send you the link and I

will also be sending out the replay after

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if you can't make it live, but you have

to register in order to get the link.

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And in order to get the replay.

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Okay.

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Onto the episode.

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You're listening to Take It Personally,

a podcast for photographers about

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the personal side of business

and the art of standing out.

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Here I'll help you build a business

and a brand that is uniquely you.

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If you want to attract dream

clients and stop looking at the

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competition to decide your next move.

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If you are ready to show up as a

confident branding authority to help

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you serve your clients and consider

your goals and priorities too.

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If you want to make your mark in a

new underserved niche of photography,

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then this is the place for you.

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I'm your host, Maddie Pachon, South

Dakota brand photographer and educator.

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I'm a straight shooting, Instagram

obsessed, Diehard Swifty who has

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built a multi six figure business

on the back of brand photography

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all while raising a family.

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And I know you can do the same.

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Let's get ready to take it personally.

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MacBook Pro Microphone: In 2022,

I doubled my photography prices.

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I raised my prices by 100%.

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I had been shooting brand

sessions comfortably for

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about a thousand to $1,500.

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And now I did not start doing that.

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The first sessions that

I booked were about $350.

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But I did that, uh, using a portfolio

building process that I now teach.

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And so after I shot those initial

$350 brand sessions, I pretty

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quickly raised my price to $800.

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And then I just kept phrasing it.

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And when I hit about 1200 to

$1,500, I was feeling really good.

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To be honest with you.

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I didn't really feel like.

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I needed to raise it much beyond that.

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I was kind of like, cool.

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I've arrived.

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Four figures.

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It was great.

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But then, because I was working

on developing my personal brand

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and my reputation was growing

and people were talking about me

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and referring me all good things.

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I was booking well in advance.

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Like we're talking three,

four months in advance.

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And when that happens, it is a signal.

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That something needs to change

because my clients didn't necessarily

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want to wait four months or

six months for a photo shoot.

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It was nice to be booked in advance,

but I wanted to be able to get

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people on my calendar sooner.

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So this Toby.

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Something needed to shift.

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And it was probably my pricing.

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I had also been working on my

client experience and I wanted to

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spend more time with each client.

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I wanted them.

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To see me, not just as a photographer,

but almost like a full production house.

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I wanted to be able to help them, not

just with photography, but with getting

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the models and doing the timeline and.

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Helping with any props or saying, and I

wasn't going to be able to do that unless

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I had more time to spend with my client.

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And if I wanted to spend with my client.

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I needed to be making more with

every client that I was booking.

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So even though I thought that I would be

really comfortable at that four figure,

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mark, it became pretty clear in 2022.

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That, that actually was not going to work.

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And I decided that instead of just raising

my price a hundred dollars here and a

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hundred dollars there, like I had done

in the past, which is a great method.

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And I like it a lot.

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I decided to just rip the bandaid off.

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I was like, you know what?

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I could probably be taking half the amount

of clients that I am currently taking,

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and I probably should move toward that.

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I have young children.

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I have found over the years that I am not

a high volume photographer shooting, fewer

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sessions does just work better for me.

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So I was like, whatever, we're

going to rip the bandaid off.

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I'm going to double my prices.

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So here is how I did that.

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These are the three things

that I worked on in order to

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be able to double my prices.

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The first thing is that

I worked on my mindset.

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I know that if you're like me, You know,

a few years ago, you hate this answer.

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But it was probably the biggest thing.

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And the first thing that I had to address.

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Because again, once I crossed

that four figure, mark, I had

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this idea in my head, I think.

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I for so long, wanted to charge four

figures for any sort of session that

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wasn't a wedding that once I did

it, I was like, oh my God, I did it.

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I've arrived.

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I am here.

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And we're done now.

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That is not how it goes.

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You have to constantly navigate what

it looks like to raise your prices,

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whether you're just giving yourself

a raise you're over a year, whether

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you are increasing your prices,

because your costs have increased.

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You can't just set it and forget

it when it comes to your price.

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It's ever evolving, but at the

time I didn't really realize that

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I was like, oh, four figures.

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Okay, cool.

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We're good.

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Now.

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And that was not the case.

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So that was the first

thing that I had to do.

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I had to really talk myself through.

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Okay.

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What does it mean to be a brand

photographer who charges $2,500 starting.

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What does it mean to be twice the

price of any other brand photographer

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in town and not have a team.

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I want my clients to see me as this

production house and I was doing

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a lot of those things for them.

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I still do, but I am a team of one.

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I will loop in partners

as I need, but it's me.

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And I'm charging starting $2,500.

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I had to work through those thoughts

because honestly, the idea of charging

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anything over $1,500, it made my

skin crawl, even though I knew.

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It was where I needed to be headed.

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This is a good problem to have, but it

can still be a problem if you're not

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working on the mindset part of pricing.

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As you improve your client experience.

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And as you serve your clients

better and better, you're going

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to have more people referring you.

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Your reputation is going to grow.

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You're going to get more and more people

who say, Hey, I want to work with you.

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And only you, I'm not

looking at any other options.

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I'm not interested in your referral.

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You're going to get that more and more,

and it can be a really good thing, but

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it also means that you have to constantly

be thinking about the issue of pricing.

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And if you're not working on your mindset

alongside that it can be really draining.

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So that was the first

thing that I worked on.

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The second thing is I positioned myself

as a high end brand photographer.

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And I struggle even saying that

because I think in the world of

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online business, you hear a lot of

like, high-end photographer, luxury

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photographer, that sort of thing.

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And I kind of roll my eyes when

people refer to themselves as that,

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because in my opinion, it is a.

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Show me don't tell me, you know?

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The reason that I say this, I positioned

myself as a high end brand photographer.

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Is because I want to really point out

that I did this in a way where I wasn't

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just saying I am a high-end brand

photographer because that's not enough.

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It's not enough to call yourself luxury.

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It's not enough to call yourself high end.

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You have to walk the walk.

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So for me, this involved working

on my own personal brand, it

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involved hiring some help.

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I hired a brand designer who helped me

update my brand and update my website.

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We did a full website redesign.

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That was quite a large investment for me.

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This was also when I started getting more

serious about getting my own photos done

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and realizing that this was something

that I was going to have to revisit.

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Every year or multiple times a

year to make sure that I was really

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putting my best foot forward and

presenting myself in a way that.

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My clients could learn to trust me and

that they would want to work with me.

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Branding is one of those things that is

more of a feeling than it is something

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that you can like point to or touch.

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And that was what I wanted to convey.

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I wanted people to be able to look at

my work and look at my brand and the way

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that I presented myself and know that

I was high end without having to have

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that, like slapped all over my website.

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Cause I I'm not, I wasn't interested

in doing that and I'm still

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not interested in doing that.

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The last thing that I worked

on to be able to double my

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prices and still remain booked.

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Was focused on my client experience.

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Now this is separate from positioning

myself as a high-end brand photographer,

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but the two really go hand in hand

because a stellar client experience

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is also how you get the reputation of

being a high-end brand photographer.

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A high-end brand

photographer is high touch.

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They communicate well.

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They answered their client's questions

before their clients even ask them.

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They are constantly

surprising and delighting.

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They are simplifying things.

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So things are easier for their client

that all happens in the client experience.

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My goal at every shoe is to make it so

good that my clients can't help, but talk

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about me to their business on our friends.

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As photographers, we do so much work to

get the client, but we honestly could

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use some improvement when it comes to

getting clients to rave review and refer.

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We kind of dropped the ball in that area.

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And when you have a really solid

client experience, your current clients

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can help you get your next client.

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So it's a really detrimental

mistake to be making that.

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I see all too often.

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And I have struggled with this too.

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I have had seasons of life where I'm not

delivering photos as quickly as I should

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be, or I am lacking in communication.

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I miss an email or I forget to send an

email, like stuff like that happens,

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but being able to pick yourself back

up to apologize, to own your mistakes

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and to promise yourself that that's

not going to happen again, that you're

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going to learn from it and make sure

that every experience is consistent and.

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Consistent and also better than the last,

like that's what you need to be doing.

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With every single client.

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That is a luxury experience.

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I hear so often from my photography

clients, that brand clients are

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not willing to pay for figures.

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They're not willing to pay a

thousand dollars or $3,000 or $5,000.

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But these clients do exist.

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I improve my clients are proof.

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I have a client who just this week

in the last, not even four months

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that she has been inside rebrand.

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It's four months at the end of October.

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She has made over $30,000 with

Brenton photography services.

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That's headshots that's

personal brand sessions.

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That's commercial sessions, $30,000.

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Just about every session that she

has been submitting has been four

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figures or like mid four figures.

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Like she's doing such an insane.

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Job.

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And she's based in Iowa.

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Like she's not in LA,

she's not in New York.

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She is near a large city, but she

is in Iowa and she continues to

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get these incredible clients who

are willing to pay her prices.

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And it's because of the focus on these

three things, your positioning, your

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marketing and your client experience.

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And this is exactly what I'm going

to be going over on October 17th

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at noon central in this live.

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I've masterclass called the three secrets

to booking brand photography clients.

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These are the three things that you

need to understand about your brand

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and how you can set yourself up for

success to be able to be booking B's

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four figure plus clients, because if

you are not visible and reputable,

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they are going to look right past you.

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You can go to Maddie, push

on.com/masterclass to register.

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And I will send out the replay

afterward, but you have to sign up.

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See you there.

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Thank you so much for listening

to Take It Personally.

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If you haven't already, would you head

over to iTunes and leave us a review?

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This is the best way to let other

photographers know about the show and

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help keep us creating content you crave.

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And if you want more tips and tools to

build your personal photography brand,

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head over to my website, MaddiePichon.

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com.

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Here, you can access my downloadable

ultimate personal brand session shot

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list to get your clients singing

your praises and browse my blog for

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more trade secrets to help you hone

your craft and grow your business.

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Love to learn while you

listen, visit MaddiePachon.

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com and click on podcast for all things.

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Take it personally.

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From show notes to recent episodes

and incredible guest profiles.

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Remember friend, the most important part

of any brand is the people behind it.

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Branding and business is personal,

so let's take it personally.