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Pricing for Boudoir: Name Your Own Price

Okay, you guys ready for some more pricing information? Um, so we've already discussed shooting burn packages and all the card and the ala carte was working for me really well for quite a while, and I was really happy with it, and all of a sudden I started sort of seeing a drop in the amount of bookings that I was taking and a lot of people telling me I was too expensive. This is something you really need to list into. I'm not saying that you should bend over backwards every time somebody says you're too expensive and go and drop your prices, but something was happening. I'm not I'm not really sure what it was, I'm not sure if it was, um, the economy I'm not I don't really know, I still don't really totally have a tap on what was going on, but I can tell you that my bookings drops and it made my antennas go up and I wanted to make sure that I made adjustments again. I see see a trend and I make adjustments toward it, ok, I don't hesitate, I don't think about it, I just do it, so we're ...

going to start with talking about you the name your own price is is a crazy idea that I had that I tried this summer, I get a a lot of questions about it and I'm sure you guys will have questions too, so please don't be afraid to ask I know some of you have even tried it so maybe we'll talk about that a little bit um this is the thing you guys I come from a long line of entrepreneurs surprisingly since I made so many mistakes but I come from a long line of entrepreneurs my husband owns his own business, I own my own business and there's one thing I know for sure business is all about adaptation it is all about adaptation you cannot you know, people like take these classes in there like they see instructors like me or other people like wow, you guys have it all figured out no, we don't no, we know because we're always moving always changing do you think that like big companies like nike sit back and go? Oh well, we got to figure it out no, they're always looking for the new thing the best thing the new person, the new player you know what? What can we invent that'll be groundbreaking and better than everybody else this second you sit down and you go well, I have it all figured out you're done your fried you might as well just pack it up, pack it in and call it a day because business is all about adaptation you always going to be changing. So don't think that even you're going to take this class. You're gonna go home, you're gonna figure it out, you're going to be done. You're never done okay and everyone's laughing right now, you're never, ever done so recognize it's working and what's not working. And don't be afraid to change it. And here's the thing you guys, I really the only difference between me and you or me and anybody else is action. I take action, I take calculated risks. I'm not afraid of them. I'm not necessarily afraid of failure anytime. If business gets slow or things change, I always say, don't worry, I'll figure it out. I always dio I can't sit and worry about it, I just have to do it. So before you were saying, oh my gosh, I'm all the things that you said not to do. I do all of those that's totally okay, take this moment realised I was there too. Not that long ago, by the way, and save yourself. Okay, it's. Not a bad thing, but I know I have to make changes. What are those? Change is going to be like you're not going to sleep tonight because you're going to be thinking about all the changes you have to make right that's good that's successful so as a business owner if you can't go with the flow recognized your struggles and adapt to them you will be left behind or worse left out of business period that is true for any business anybody lauren you have a few different businesses isn't this true for all of your businesses yeah, right if you can't adapt you will be left behind so name your own price was sort of my way of adapting in the moment uh is it risky? Yes, it was very risky but I really had nothing to lose and it's what I like to call a calculated risk okay? It like not it's like jumping off of a I'm jumping out of an airplane without a parachute that's risky but jumping out of an airplane with the power shoot that's a calculated risk, right? It's tor two totally different chances are the parachute is gonna open and you're going to be fine there's always that small chance am I not that's a calculated risk? Okay, this is how I see it in business too. I really want to make sure that I always have my parachute but I know there's always a chance it might not work but that's okay, because I will just pick myself up and change it again, okay so let's talk a little bit about the name your own price and this is within person viewing our online doing we'll talk about that a little bit um advantages it is totally custom you don't get any more custom the name your own price okay and you guys understand I just want it back once I get what name your own price is like my customers air naming their own price crazy I know people don't believe me when I say this uh you're going to get more bookings for sure I can guarantee you that you were definitely gonna get more referrals and you're going to know yourselves up front and hopefully there'll be room for up selling here if you do it properly there will be and I'm going to talk to you about how I did all of this disadvantages you have to be more to much more organized because now it's not like are you getting package a b or c it's okay which what's your name again? Which one of your getting you have to make custom contracts but everybody everything has to be super organized you have to make sure if she doesn't have hair you don't book the hair artist you know it's it's a little more organization definitely um you want to make sure so like I said each quiet gets their own custom contracts and it may bring in a different kind of client okay, twenty five hundred dollars shoot is going to bring in a different kind of shoot then, like a seven hundred fifty different kind of client than a seven hundred fifty dollar shoot, you know might bring it a little bit, just a bit of a different client that might not be a bad thing. We'll talk about that a little, okay? So at the time, like I said, people were enquiring but not booking at the same rate. So what's, the first thing I did, I went to facebook and I said, hey, facebook, I have a question for you, and by the way, I was hearing this from many other boudoir photographers across the board. Like I said, I have the facebook group with about eight thousand boudoir photographers and and a lot of people were complaining about bookings being down and people complaining they were too expensive, and I'm thinking, thank god, it's, not just me, but what is it? What is going on here? So I went to facebook a facebook I have a question for you if you have ever inquired with me or another boudoir photographer and didn't book the shoot, what was stopping you? Very simple question I just wanted to know, and I'm certainly not saying that that this is like facebook had the answer, and this is like, you know, this is just a microcosm of, like, whoever's news feed, I show up in and whatever, but I figured, you know, I get a pretty good idea, and most people were saying that it was the money that was stopping them, which is really sad that's really sad that women want this and they can't afford it, you know, that's unfortunate and I started really started affecting me. S o how did I respond? I went to my block. Okay, now you guys know me well enough at this point that I talk about the fact that I believe all women deserve a boudoir shoot and that every woman should be, you know, find a way to uniquely define her femininity shamelessly, and I really believe in this this is why I do boudoir, I don't just do it to take good pictures, I don't just do it because I have nothing else to dio I really believe that we're changing women's lives and we're helping each other and that their healing me also that I'm able to embrace my femininity in my own unique way, I mean, we have all these women here that air feminine all different ways I mean lauren and I talk about this all the time because you know she identifies like I said I was being a little more town boyish and I have the tomboy cy too and then I have the girlie oh I love huell side and I really believe every woman should be feminine the way they want to be feminine and we should all applaud that and strengthen each other with that and I do that with boudoir photography that's why I do boudoir so I went to my block and you don't have to read this is too small but basically what I did as I said on my block listen guys here's what I think boudoir photography is so important to me and I believe it's so powerful I think every woman deserves a shoot and I'm going to make that happen you want to shoot you come to me you tell me what you're ready to spend what you want for that money let's talk I'm not saying that I'll say yes I'm not saying that I'll say no but let's open up the lines of communication here okay if you want to spend seven hundred dollars I'll take your seven hundred dollars what do you want for that though do you want an album and fifty eight pictures and this knot I can't I can't afford that I am making a living doing this you guys this is not charity okay, but I want to help women that want to be helped those of the best clients of the world the one that really want it so I went to my block you guys can read it it's on my blogged generations blogged dot com and it's with a j just so you know um go read it. What do you want? You know, tell me what you want I want you to have a shoot so badly now I made a couple mistakes right off the bat, which well, we will talk about a minute, but what did I gain from it? It was mission based, okay, but it was also sort of like a social experiment. I wanted to get an idea. Are people going to react to this? You know, like I want to see what's gonna happen. I have nothing to lose right now. It's slow anyway, it's not like I'm booking twenty five hundred dollars clients out the wazoo and I feel like taking five hundred dollars clients you know, let me see what's gonna happen let let me do on behalf of all of you are photographers everywhere I'm going to do this social experiment to see what happened, right? But it was truly mission based and I wanted to learn what people thought photography was actually worth that was the most important thing I could charge twenty five hundred dollars so the cows come home but if nobody thinks it's worth twenty five hundred dollars, then what am I doing? And you could be charging twenty five hundred dollars and wake up one day and say, well, I'm not booking clients the way I used to, so I'm just gonna drop my prices but what if you don't do it properly? It gets not an answer just dropping your prices isn't an answer so people thought that boudoir photography was worth one hundred dollars like if I got every offer was a hundred dollars I'm just going to quit forget creative live forget almighty jing forget everything that I'm doing forget my studio I'm gonna give it up, I'm gonna quit, I'm going I'm going to do something else because I can't afford to live one hundred dollars shoots. I just can't but what if I was just missing it by a little like what if people didn't want to spend twenty five hundred dollars but they wanted to spend two thousand dollars they thought it was worth two thousand what if they were willing to spend twelve hundred dollars? Can I make a living making twelve hundred dollars shoots? Probably if I took enough shoots right, but I wanted to know so by having them named their own price they were telling me that the society of people want boudoir photography were telling me what they thought it was valued at and that's really what I wanted to know. So you understand my my understanding behind this questions so far on this? Because I know it's kind of mind blowing. Okay, so what's the difference between this and dropping your prices? It's really very simple when things are slow. Like I said, our first instinct is to run and drop our prices. Okay, people are booking, they're telling and too expensive I'm going to drop. My price is but how do you know where to drop them to? Is the question? So what if I drop my prices? What if I said my shooter twelve or twenty five hundred dollars? Right now I'm going to drop them to eighteen hundred, eighteen hundred. What have eighteen hundred was still too expensive. What if my sweet spot was really twenty, two hundred? And now I jacked into eighteen hundred and I'm missing the rest of that money you like? How do you know where to drop your price is too. You guys, this is using the pull it adam I torch method. You don't know what you're doing. You're just experimenting, you're throwing spaghetti against the wall and you're trying to see which ones are going to stick that so that's not a way to present your pricing. It's not a way to figure it out. So here I'm actually asking and and my other concern was like, what about my other fines? Is it fair to my clients who did spend twenty five hundred dollars that now I might be charging less on I'll tell you the answer to that was yes, because I made sure that the people who spent less got less. Okay, so not one of my twenty five hundred dollar or above clients complained ever. Okay, so here's a bonus it's actually also a marketing technique. Now, let's, just talk about marketing for one second before I get into the slide, a lot of people ask me for marketing it's like the number one thing when I say, what do you guys want to learn? I'm going on creative life. What do you want to learn? I am not a marketing expert by any means. And we were having this conversation this morning, actually in the green room about, you know, marketing what's the best marketing technique. And I said, you know what? The best marketing technique is giving a good experience and taking really nice pictures. That is the best marketing thatyou could d'oh okay, so we're gonna talk about how this works for me with marketing, but the best marketing you could do is be amazing kid next with people referrals are the best form of marketing we're going to talk about this more than once in this class because that is really where you want to get your marketing from I stink in marketing, but I'm really good at connecting with people I'm really good at taking good pictures I'm amazing at posing I could make anybody feel like a million dollars and that is my marketing okay, so I'm not a marketing genius. However this turned out to be a marketing move I didn't even really expect that it was kind of a bonus because you know what happened? I put it up on facebook people started sharing the block, sharing the post tagging other people hey someone so I know you were looking to do you are shoot this is your opportunity get in there go do it you know this this girl's great we love her. We've seen her well, you know, whatever it might be and it turned out to be a marketing technique as well a broad and repeat clients now I was worried about upsetting my twenty five hundred dollars claims but you know what my twenty five hundred dollars clients did they came back they were like well, now if I could come in for a thousand dollars I do want to do another shoot I just don't want to spend twenty five hundred again but I'll come in for another thousand dollars so I got repeat clients also which was amazing so here's the question when we talk about this sometimes people go well should I do this? This is right for me here's how you know if it's right for you are you doing really well? Are you booking hand over fist julian, you were saying you were booking really easily right now and things are going well for you don't do this don't do this don't even you could just take a nap right now thiss isn't for you okay, but if you're slow where things are changing or you're growing or you're just starting out and you want to know what people will spend you want to do this social experiment you want to get an idea why not try this? What do you have to lose right if business is not going the way you want it to be going anyway, what do you have to lose getting bodies and the door is really important, you know? We talked about that that year of three hundred people and I didn't make that much money no, I didn't, but I gained a wealth of information wealth do you know why I compose so well? Because I pose three hundred crazy women in a year and I had to make each one look beautiful. That's why? I'm good opposing okay, this is this. This is the same thing it's important to keep shooting you guys even when you're slow it's imp, horton and I rather you make some money to make no money writing I kind of keep yourself fresh and experiment with things. So this is a good way of doing that. Ok? So after I posted the blood, what happened? Increase came in immediately. I mean, it was like immediate. It was crazy. My email started going crazy. Facebook got started going crazy and I realized very quickly I made it huge mistake. I did not put a minimum and I was getting offers for fifty bucks hundred bucks two hundred dollars and I started to panic like, oh, my god, people really do you think it's worth a hundred dollars? I'm quitting. I'm gonna go sell my cabin out. This is crazy! And so I went back to the bog and I said a minimum of five under dollars now here's, why I thought for five hundred dollars, I could do like, a half an hour shoot or something pretty quick, right? I could take more than one girl a day could take probably two or three girls for five hundred dollars a day, so you know what? I'll told for five hundred dollars, if it's a really minimum package and I could shoot three today, that's, fifteen hundred dollars, I don't have to go back to studio three times. I could do that. So I said a minimum of five hundred dollars. At that point, I went back to the bob quickly change that and that that worked out much better. So negotiations were going to talk a little about how the negotiations work. This is probably the downfall for a lot of photographers. I know a lot of you guys, and when I say you guys, I don't just mean, you guys, I mean, like photographers, I have a hard time communicating with their clients and that's a and the confidence issue. I missed this, you requires quite a bit of that. I'm not gonna lie. You have to be able to go back and forth with your client. You have to not feel bad about what you're going to say to them. You have tio, you know, stick to your guns and keep those boundaries up, so we're gonna talk a little bit about negotiations because it is a negotiation um by the way uh, after I change my minimum all the offers that came in except for one were over a thousand dollars that surprised maze that surprise anybody? Yeah, it surprised me. I really thought most when we're gonna be like in that five hundred dollar range but most of them they came in for over a thousand dollars except for one and I booked seven girls on the first day seven girls yeah, so that was really good. So let's talk about the negotiation works so a client either and I'm sorry my number is messed up tio I do know how to count you guys swear uh s so we'll go with number one. She knows what she wants and does not know what to pay she's confused or number one she has a budget in mind and doesn't know what it will get. And number two she has a budget and a packet of minor number four doesn't know anything and, uh but this is this is the four different scenarios that you will find when a client calls. Okay, so let's start with she knows what she wants. It does not know what to pay. Hi, jen. My name is jen and I want a two hour shoot with hair I mean she's like so specific it's crazy I wanted to ours too with hair and makeup and I want to wear four different outfits and I want a twenty page album, but I have absolutely no idea what that would cost. Give me an idea of what's happening great. I'm just going for my regular price. We'll see what happens from there. So if I give her a regular place and she might say to me that's a little high, I was hoping to spend a little more like this. Ok, good let's talk about it, let's, open it up, just give a starting point somewhere, okay? But this is a girl who's done some research before, so she knows what's out there. Or maybe she looked at another photographer and looked at you and really wants you but can't afford you so she's trying to get you for that photographer's price. I don't know, but there's some research that's been done before, clearly. Okay, so let's, just start the negotiation somewhere and go back and forth on that. Uh, she has a budget of mine and doesn't know what it will get these air these air good clients to because basically they say, I have a thousand dollars to spend I don't know what it will get made, but give me an idea, but I'm ready to give you a thousand dollars. Okay, so you know what, four thousand dollars I could do x y and z maybe I would do and I based this off of pretty much my regular pricing um for thousand dollars I can to make up for you and I could do a one hour shoe with fifteen digitals yes and an eight by ten I don't know I'm making something up right now. What do you think of that? She might say well, I don't really don't want fifteen I went twenty digitals can you twenty digitals okay, I could teach money digital sign that's fine, I'll take a thousand dollars no problem. Ok, on what I'm doing is I'm keeping track of all these packages so that when another group in the next girl comes and she wants to spend a thousand dollars I can say to her I booked a girl yesterday for thousand dollars this is what she got okay, so that this way we're starting to keep everybody in sort of these groupings right? So it's sort of name your own price but it's sort of not really at all right? We just have to book that first grouping toe understand where they're coming from ah package and a budget in mind I want this and this is what I want to spend these air these are the ones that are usually the sort of the more aggressive like either they want everything for nothing where they're fairly reasonable. But I found these were a lot of girls that want, like everything for nothing. And I'll just say, you know what? I can't do it for that price, but I booked a girl yesterday for a thousand dollars, and this is what she got. How do you feel about that? We can work around that. And again, it's a negotiation back and forth. Okay doesn't know anything at all. I love those girls. I just want you to shoot me. I don't know what I want. I know how much I want to spend. I don't know. I just thought your post I think your work is also make it happen. Ok, well, here is the options for five hundred. You get this for a thousand, you get that book to grow for twenty, five hundred. Give me an idea. Tell him, you know, communicate with me, and then we go from there. So these are the different scenarios you're going to run into when you negotiate. It is important. You have to feel confident in this. You have to feel confident. Okay? You have to be okay to say no, you have to be okay a counter offer. It's hard it's not always easy but you again you're doing this for your other clients you don't want to be unfair you don't want somebody who spent fifteen hundred dollars on something in the next day somebody spent five hundred dollars on it that's not fair okay I also limited it to ten spots by the way I think I do say that somewhere in here just in case I don't s o things to consider when negotiating the price ranges again being fair to clients who've already booked on doing this while maintaining your brand so in other words like I'm not doing hundred dollars shoots like that's not me that's not good for me or my brand or anything else would make sure that you're maintaining your brand and what you do giving your clients it's not so far off of your normal pricing maybe it's a little bit last it's not so far off from what you would normally d'oh you want to be honest and you don't want to rule out your standard pricing there were a couple girls that were like I want x y z I'm like what you've described is exactly my session this is how much it isthe book it you're still getting your money's worth you know, like I'm not offering all of this for a thousand dollars I'm offering all of this for twenty five hundred book that standard pricing it's ok to do that so here here's really this is such an important slide this is not about getting a bargain this is not about a girl calling you I'm saying I know you normally charge twenty five hundred but I want it for twelve fifty I wanted for half this is not about getting a bargain this is about giving them what they feel it's worth okay? So it's it's about how much you're giving them for how much they're paying and making sure that they feel that the value is there do you understand it's not about giving them everything that you have at half the price that's just call dropping your prices this's about making adjustments of what you're giving them too and they're making adjustments of what they're paying you to match up together to give them what they think it's worth yes, yes question so essentially they name their price and then you just cut it down to fit that price so just like kind of like coming in a package and half or something like that pretty much pretty much like I said it's pretty much based on my pricing give or take a little bit like I've booked packages for twelve hundred that maybe I would normally get seventeen hundred four okay it's five hundred dollars lives that's a considerable amount less but when I rather take that girl for twelve hundred and still make money on her or not booker in a time word slow you'd rather take the girl for twelve hundred I mean guys still make money don't this is not charity and I made that very clear in my blogged if I could go around shoot every woman for free in the world I would be happy to do it but I have children to feed and I have bills to pay this is not charity this is me able to being able to make a living doing what I absolutely only love and trying to reach as many women as possible. Okay, so yes, I was making less money I'm not afraid to stand up there and admit that I was making less money but man, it was so much fun I have to tell you like these girls were awesome because when you give somebody something for what they value it for, there is no miscommunication there is no I paid too much or, you know, I paid too little or what they're like. I got my money's worth that was awesome, right? Um so here's how it kind of worked. Once I agreed on the price I would send out the contract right away get the contract out to the um and I would collect the retainer the retainer I would do depending on what a had they give us a five hundred dollars shoot, I'd collect half you have the most the time I think I would collect half on these clocked half like here's a tip about retainer is don't collect like one hundred dollar retainer that's not enough money because a girl will walk away from hundred dollars if she feels nervous or she got her period or she just had a bad fight with her boyfriend or whatever it is, she'll be like a walk awayfrom hundred dollars she's not gonna walk away from five hundred dollars is not gonna walk away from two fifty if her packages five hundred dollars she's not gonna walk away from eight hundred dollars, you know so collector tainer that are large enough for them not to walk away from it, so email goes out about what to bring. I said two emails one is like right away and the other one is like a few days before, now that I have my lingerie guy, which, by the way, I made my own copy of thank you very much. I send them the lingerie guide here's how to prepare for your shoot. So now I don't have to do pre shoot consoles with these women because again they're spending less money I don't want to give them necessarily as much time I'm still connecting with them, I'm still making sure they're prepared and I'm still talking to them and some clients has spent twenty two hundred dollars in her name your own price I would do appreciate consul with like that was part of our deal I'll throw in a priest you console so this was not a black and white thing this was very gray some girls I did it some girls I didn't do it whatever I felt was necessary at the time I would feel a girl out and I would make a decision on what I wanted to do okay, so my shoot my shooting really didn't change much still doing the same shooting that I would do before getting back for your buck we've already spoken about about posing flow and making changes imposing and getting as much as you possibly can in a short period of time because don't forget I'm gonna upsell these girls so even though she might only come in for a half an hour shoot I want to get as many good pictures as I possibly can I'm not just focused on the five that she's already bought I want to make sure she wants fifteen okay shoot quickly but thoughtfully as I like to say proper posing is still very important here you guys don't think because a girl spending less you don't have less of a knob legation take good pictures you still have as much of an obligation if not more because again you want to upset her right um so you have to save yourself from the post processing time you're going to remember those eight point supposing that we've already discussed to make sure that you get great great poses it is very, very vital thatyou were turning these out these pictures out very quickly okay? Because you're shooting a lot more people and you want to get them done fast and proper posing is the way to do that remember, I hate everything. So after the shoot I called through the images images and I lightly edit them and I show about thirty to fifty images per outfit that's pretty much a rule across the board thirty to fifty images per outfit sounds like a lot I know, but I mean, you know, you guys were going to do that now you've learned how to do that with opposing flow and all that so you're gonna be good uh after the shoot shorter shoots quicker turnaround time now my shoots are shorter and I don't go put my kids on the bus to go to the studio shoot come home, take the kids off the bus I go to the studio, I shoot, I come home, I have two hours to spare before the kids get off the bus I call through the pictures I either put them on an online gallery or I prepare them for in person sales depending on the package and I'm ready to go like I was turning these girls around toy for hours it was amazing and I was so I don't have to work late I was so happy and like this is awesome the girls are happy a lot of them are seeing their pictures the next day that's amazing, right? So again I would choose I would let the client choose if they want to do in person south a lot of these girls didn't want to come back there like just throw my pictures up and I'll and I'll choose them now I really do believe that it is a form of cruel torture to leave a girl alone in a room with pictures of herself half naked I don't like it, but if a girl spends five hundred dollars and she's like jen, I'm really only buying five pictures like I cannot afford to spend another penny just put them online for me, okay? I'll do it and you know it is goes against a little bit what I wanted to do, but if this is what I need to do for her to experience boudoir photography and she can't do it any other way, why would I say no to that? So I'm listening to what my clients want do I always think it's best for them? No, but they're telling you what they want and I'm listening yes I know you're floored by this hole that you're like. What are you doing? Well, use actually set up the online sales. Tio yeah, I use albums on zen folio right now. There's a lot of different options out there. I've been using san polio from the beginning, so I just I'm a creature of habit. I just set it up and I just use it so I give him a password protected gallery and I usually make it a valid for about two weeks after that it's done, they can't see it anymore. I don't leave the images available to them forever or else we'll never buy anything. But again, these girls have already purchased those pictures. You know, they're just picking out which ones they want. So once they picked them, I take thee at the album right off. Um, that's a good question. Uh, there was yes. You asked me a question is that for hours going to say so? If, like if, like you said she said, you know, she only wants five images, will you? Are you still putting up the thirty images per outfit knowing she's only going to buy a pair of them? Um, so you will see when I do the post processing, preparing for sale sessions on dh versus the final edits for album designed so yes, we're giving a very light edit and again that's why the posing is so important and you're lighting is so important because we're doing such minimal editing to show the client that yeah, it's meant everything is very minimal here. I mean, I sort of believe in minimalism and photography period. Even in my pictures, you'll notice is not always a ton of stuff in the pictures is usually a girl against a white backdrop or something of the nature or a simple girl on the bed, minimal lighting, minimal. I shoot with one light, minimal equipment. Everything is very minimal editing, minimal that's just my style not saying it has to be everybody else's but that's just the way I operate. I think less is more with this stuff. Um, so again, if a client says and I really want to come back and I want you to help me pick the pictures are absolutely let them come back. That's a gateway to up selling I have a question, are you doing the negotiation portion via email or over the phone, usually by email? Which actually makes it easier to say no on e mail, right makes it a little bit easier. Yeah, and I'll be honest with you with all the negotiations I did nobody ever said okay, I can't do it then the only time I ever had that problem was girls really asked for like the world and wanted three hundred dollars to it and then it was just like, listen, this is not even negotiation I can't survive like that that's crazy but any girl that I really got involved with negotiations and they're all booked well, we came up with a solution uh again up selling we definitely want to do that afterwards. So my experience was that, um if you do this long enough, you are definitely up sell some pictures and you're going to start seeing trends. Okay, so I immediately started seeing trends of small package medium package, large package. Okay, everybody was sort of in that eight hundred twelve hundred two thousand area. It was like weird how that kind of happened and I notice these three different chunks and when we talk about going back to packages, we're going to talk about that because I was able to go back to packages and build the packages off of the name your own price, okay, see how it all kind of comes full circle so it's working for me, it was working for me when I say right now at the time for me, I was it was a very busy summer for me and I just you know, I like to always consider myself high volume, low volume, high price, but that just wasn't working, so I'm like, all right, can I go to medium volume, medium price? Will that work for me? And it did I mean, we were talking about this again last night about, you know, just get the girls in the door let's see what happens up, sell that make it work um sometimes high paying clients are very high stress, and I just I don't know it felt burned out from it to him when these client started coming that we're paying a little bit last money did a lot of lesser may I was like, wow, this is awesome I could do this all the time it was much more comfortable for me in the moment it worked for my life it was less stress and less time consuming for that period of time when I really needed it I had a lot of other stuff going on, I really needed that, um so again at the time, medium priced medium volume was more sustainable for me than high priced low volume okay, and you need to think about your life what is sustainable for you at the time right now, here's the thing I want to mention a couple things, so hear my overall results I limited it to ten spots on the block I said I only have ten spots available in case it was a complete failure that was my parachute remember, this is a calculated risk so I didn't jump out of the plane without a parachute. My parachute was the ten spots my feeling was if this failed and I booked ten spots at five hundred dollars okay, I'll probably lose a little bit of money, but at least it's only ten spots, but the truth is I took more than ten sessions because it worked out so well I was very happy to take more than ten, but that ten was my parachute. I booked the seven in the first week and again the prices range from five hundred to twenty, five hundred and most were in the thousand to fifteen hundred dollar range, which again, I was very pleased with that's that's not a bad price it's not awful it's not what I want, but I can't always control that, you know, andi here's, the other thing, this is sort of ah path of least resistance to I could either go out and bust my ass doing all that marketing that I say I'm not so good at and doesn't make me so comfortable or I could do this this was a former marketing and like I said, it brought in more clients at a little bit less money, but look at all that time I didn't have to market hoping to get those other clients right? I hope it doesn't sound lazy, but I just, you know, I wanted to make I wanted I wanted to shoot man I wanted to, like get girls in my studio and shoot and create awesome evangelists we're going to talk about me and create some buzz for me. That's the best marketing the majority added more images out after the session. I think out of all the girls I shot like, I think at least eight added more images and some even added after that it was like, you know, you know what? I decided I just want to buy the cd here, I just want to, you know, do whatever, so it was definitely worthwhile, but not everything could be measured mon it's early, you guys, yes, you have to pay your bills, your business has to be self sustaining, but man, I was so happy I was like such a mess, mrs so weird, I'm not making as much money, but I'm feeling really happy these girls like I feel like I'm touching them, they're making a difference, you know, like they are so thrilled there's the emails I'm getting from these women about you've changed my life I never thought I'd have an opportunity to do this like that felt so good I would rather do that any day of the week then work with a client that spending three thousand dollars that could care less about being there I'm not saying they were all like that but I'm just saying these women really special to me I really had such a good time with them um and again it wasn't just my happiness it was their happiness as well so yes, a medium priced medium volume might mean making less a little less money but it made booking a hole of a lot easier I didn't have to hear every single time here to expects of you're too expensive or too expensive I was booking clients that's like such a good feeling it gets the energy going gets the mo mentum moving ah lot of times when people say to me I don't I don't have any clients I don't know what's going on it just get people in your studio put some life in there I don't care if you have to shoot somebody for free get moving get started if your stalled you have to just kind of move it and so for me this was what was happening at the time it was less marketing for me and it was definitely more referrals which was wonderful um and again it also meant more time for me and my family I travel a lot, you guys so over the summer was the time I really want to be with my kids like I want to be in the pool with them on saturday I want to have a good time and this allowed me to do that while making money and not having to spend all that time marketing so your business isn't evolving organism which we've said already be flexible and allow yourself the opportunity to live your life build this life the way you want it to be that's really, really, really important this last line I want you to read it very carefully specifically stop worrying about judgments from other people, okay? I am a living example of that do you know what it's like to get up on creative live and say to everybody, I dropped my prices basically I was okay with meaning less money I was not successful at sustaining twenty five hundred dollars shoots for five years it worked for me for a period of time and then I realized it wasn't working it's not easy to admit when something isn't working for you, but here's the thing I don't care, I don't care what anybody out there thinks about me I care about keeping my business up aki I care about making women better I care about being honest and about being real and saying two guys, you know what? It wasn't working so I changed it and that's okay? And I'm still happy and I'm still paying my bills and I'm working differently not working harder or less hard I'm just working differently I'm working in the way that it makes me happy and if I have to worry about oh my god, what is everybody going to say when I stand up creative live um then I'm not really being true to my business and I'm not being true to what I need to be doing so as much as yes you leave yourself open when you come up and you teach a class like this and part of you goes, oh, I hope I don't get bashed the other part of it is I don't care I did what I needed to do at the time to make my life and my business work for me and I think some of you have already expressed to me a little bit of nervousness about well what are people going to think of ice charge three hundred dollars for sure what are people going to think if I do this or that stop worrying about what other people think and stop worrying about what other people are doing you guys have to do what's good for you and your business to make it sustainable fair agreed we all promise raise your right hands thank you uh taking chances in your business also means breaking your own rules two years ago I was on creative live and I said well I hair makeup is included in every session there are no exceptions and if you don't want to shoot with my hair makeup artist you know you don't want to work with them then I don't shoot you lie now I break my own rules okay makeup is included sometimes hares not included other times again we're making it work okay since my hair makeup is so expensive I realize that had to take hair out of some of these equations because it was another hundred thirty dollars that you know could make or break if somebody's gonna book me you know so I had to make some changes appreciate councils is another one I love connect stay with the women but for five hundred dollars shoot I just can't do it I just can't legitimize the time I'm going to spend on that it's just not fair it's not fair with people who are spending more money so again I came up with this lingerie guide to help me and to help you guys connect with the clients even when I don't have time to pick up the phone like maybe I was going to say the laundry god is really for me on and I'm allowing you guys use it to know but it helps me in my business. These are the things that we need to create. Create a tool that will work for you to help you connect their fine even if you don't have pre shoot consuls. Think about all that stuff. Like I said, there's more than one way to skin a cat right in person sales. And I do take more than one client day. Used to only take one client day was a rule only one client a day. But now if I have shorter shoots but shoot is a half an hour she's an hour I can take more than one client a day. That's okay, I still feel connected with them. I'm not overrun my shooting five girls a day, so I'm breaking my own rules. Guess what I have to answer to me. So it's okay, I'm gonna let myself I'm gonna be forgiving. Uh, and breaking rules is okay. As long as you learned from a good or bad, you might find that you're going to take makeup out of your name your own price packages. Okay, I'm not going to force them to get make up some but my makeup artist and then find the girls are coming in with the worst makeup ever and you're like, you know what? I'm going to go back to my original rule which is basically what I did but I went back to my original rule if you have to have makeup down in my studio it's that important to me I'm willing to lose you as a client because of that that's how important it is so break your own rules that's fine, but just go with the flow and learn what's working through what's not working for you and at the time I was also booking my original sessions be confident in offering your clients what really suits them be adamant about it. In fact I would say like if they really want your original package this is what it is this is what you should book I feel strongly about that. You know this is what's going to give you the experience that you want be honest, just be honest with them about that um so again and help me develop new packages which I just rolled out actually on january first, which is ironic but it would just happen to have been the time of year but it help me roll them out. And so I think that you guys are going to see the same thing I know aly's tried the name your own price and we talked about it a little bit about how it's going to start shaping up for you and seeing what packages you can create for your clients um and you know, this is really about me making money doing what I love and meeting my clients needs those air important if you're not meeting your client's needs and you're missing that that whole connection with them um any questions on this I know it's so much information you guys and I know I think greg is still not over that where he's on the first line mentally still he's like what is she doing retainer what are your policies for that like I'm I cannot say you know, if someone calls me and says you know like your mom's in the hospital I can't say well, you just lose that like okay, yeah I don't know that either I'm a human being first I'm very strict about it in my contract you absolutely cannot have your retainer back I don't care if the sky falls down you cannot have a retainer by but when they email me and they say listen, you know my grandmother's in the hospital okay? Just tell me when you let's just reschedule as soon as possible so that this way I can get my staff together and we don't have any problems of course I'm a human being if she's like I got my period I feel bloated and I'm not coming tomorrow no it's not happening you're not getting your retainer back if you're not coming that's just ridiculousness s o you know again have bound your used but be a human being first yeah, I know there has to be more questions on this you guys please don't be afraid to ask or feel like it's a silly question um so you do in person sales and online depending like you said on the claim are you finding that they upgraded all from doing it online or the yes which is like that's like the best case scenario ever write yes and by the way I negotiated by the up selling too by the way so when she will email me and she'll say I picked my fifteen photos but really there's twenty five photos I love how much would it be for the extra ten I go what do you want to pay for it and they go I don't know I'll pay another two fifty okay, I'll take two fifty they're practically edited already anyway what? I don't have to do any more work okay, I'll take two fifty or I'll say you know what? I can't give you fifteen for two fifty but I gave you ten for two fifty okay that's what I did with the girl it came yesterday whatever negotiate just just you know you want them to feel like okay, you know, you don't wanna cheapen yourself, you know and I mean you have to be really careful about that but, you know, I would just say okay, based on the fact that we book this is a negotiation to begin with, I want to be fair to you what? You know, what do you comfortable spending right now? Because if I get an extra two fifty out of a girl, I mean that's good, you know, I mean, on a thousand dollar package has twenty five percent that's I'll take that get extra five hundred, even better, you know? I mean, whatever they want to give me, I'll take it up, you know? But it has to be fair, it it just has to be fair, and lauren has questions. So at first I was thinking, well, maybe this will be, like, a one one time special kind of a deal that I'll run in june, but if I start advertising for that now, people won't book me till june where they want to do that. So do do you recommend just, like, springing it on you? Okay? And again, these are your rules, lauren, you make the rules, I'm ready to take ten girls in the next month or any girl that books for the next month or from now until x date, this is what I'm doing, or you make the rules, you figure it out you know, you I said I was only taking ten clients I went further than that I said, ok, I mean, I'm going to take ten clients is summer in the fall, I wasn't really ready to read you my pricing I didn't really know where I was, so I just said to clients o r our promotion works so well we're going to do it again through the winter or the fall in the winter, so I just took everybody that I took in september october also did the name your own price you you make the rules, so now you're done and you're back to your packing packages, okay? We'll talk about it guess I have a question of course I have another question if you were just starting out now because you've been through all the pricing packages, you know, you I did everything like what would you suggest someone just starting off? You know me, I'm just stoning the business now and I have no idea how I should go about it. You know, the packages seem really nice, but I don't know if I could actually sell that without having like, a big portfolio of work what if you were dishonest and you were telling people I'm starting out my business and I want to get a feel and let's do something like this let's you know I want teo get an idea of what you know you guys want now because you're a newer photographer you'll probably get some lower prices and that's okay, I want you to get some experience I want you to but you know by not just putting low prices out there you're not married to that necessarily you might get a higher offer you might get you know the thing is you have nothing to lose this is what I said before you've nothing to lose if you get a thousand offers for two hundred dollars and you can't make that work then you just don't do it you just don't take them you know it's okay um so I think you have nothing to lose to try something like this it doesn't have to be this you can come up with your own way I wonder I do want to reiterate that you guys this is just how I did it but you don't have to do with this might come up with the way it's gonna work for you um they're the when I put out the blogged a few people copied it word for word like five minutes later there was like and I wrote to them listen I think it's awesome you want to try this is why I'm putting it out there but this can't be how you feel about it because it's how I feel about it you and I are two different people I think we have two different thoughts, so find your own message you remember we talked about why we shoot boudoir? Why do you do this? Think about that it's harder for you because you're just starting out. I really it took me a long time to figure out really? Why shoot boudoir? So I don't expect it to happen overnight, but think about why you want to do this. What message do you want people to know? Why is it that they're naming their own price versus you setting your advice? Just be honest, you know, people risk really respect honesty, even if it's hard for you to put it out there. People really respect that more questions. All right, so you guys out there, I'm sure there's a ton of questions. I get a lot of questions on this name your own price from are you crazy, teo? Anything house and yes, it is like I said, it was a calculated risk, but calculated risk is amazing in business. So if you have any questions, please join me in my facebook group along with a group of amazing photographers from around the country and around the world that can help you and your business is well, you can find us on facebook. In addition, I need my little clicker um, I want you to tell me what your biggest pricing challenges let's. Start a communication in the dialogue. Maybe we can all get together and help the entire boudoir industry get better and charge what were worth. Tell me what your challenges tweet to me at gen rosenbaum with busy. Um, you can use the hash tag, jen's, boudoir boot camp and the hashtag shamelessly feminine and tell me what you think. Visit me on my facebook page on twitter. I can't wait to hear from you.