She quit her 9-5: How Jordan Went from $250 to $1K+ Per Session within 1 Year!

Want to connect with Jordan? Follow her on Instagram @jordannicholephotos

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Jordan DePasque shares her inspiring journey from a corporate job to becoming a full-time wedding and portrait photographer. She discusses the pivotal moments that led her to quit her nine-to-five, the importance of mindset shifts in pricing strategies, and the marketing techniques that helped her attract clients. Jordan emphasizes the value of providing full-service photography and the joy it brings to both her and her clients. She also offers practical advice for aspiring photographers looking to elevate their businesses.

Takeaways

• Jordan transitioned from a corporate job to full-time photography.
• She raised her prices significantly after implementing new strategies.
• Mindset shifts are crucial for overcoming self-doubt in pricing.
• Marketing consistency is key to attracting the right clients.
• Full-service photography enhances client experience and satisfaction.
• Jordan's highest wedding package is now $4,200.
• She emphasizes the importance of believing in one's worth.
• Collaboration with local businesses helped her gain exposure.
• Blogging and SEO were vital for her marketing success.
• Jordan encourages photographers to invest in their growth.

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Transcript

Christa (00:00.847)
Welcome everybody, I am here with a very special guest, Jordan Nicole Photography. She is a wedding and portrait photographer based in Chicago, and we have some very fun things we're diving into today, so welcome Jordan.

Jordan DePasque (00:15.374)
Thank you for having me, I'm very excited.

Christa (00:18.324)
Yes, it was so good to connect with you. So Jordan was one of my students last year and I was just so excited to catch up with her and just hear kind of what's going on now because Jordan, you have some big news about job shifts and things. Fill us in.

Jordan DePasque (00:33.688)
I Yes. So I met Krista, I think it's been almost exactly a year now. But I know it's crazy. But ever since, you know, following Krista's method, I was able to recently quit my nine to five corporate job, focus on my business full time. yeah. And then also just become a part time floral designer at a greenhouse, which has been another dream job, honestly.

Christa (00:40.122)
can't believe that.

Christa (01:00.782)
That sounds amazing. And I was telling you this before, but I feel like in another lifetime, I would love to be a florist.

Jordan DePasque (01:07.031)
yeah, it's more difficult than you think it would be, but it's so fun. Like you literally just get lost in it, just like photography.

Christa (01:14.913)
I love that and like the creativity and beauty of it and intentionality. Also, like, are they doing weddings? Because I would also always think of like, man, that talk about pressure of like making sure your florals get in another right color and bloomed.

Jordan DePasque (01:27.126)
gosh, yes, we have wedding consults coming in all the time. And then another thing that they're wanting to do is switch their greenhouse into also a wedding venue. So it's like all like coming together and it's crazy.

Christa (01:38.97)
Okay, whoa.

Christa (01:43.278)
And then Jordan, I want you to share with our listeners a bit like what you do photo-wise, because that makes me excited. You could be like that designated wedding photographer. So like I said, Jordan does both weddings and portraits, significantly raised her prices in both. Jordan, let's start here. Could you share with our listeners just a bit about building your business and that pivotal moment that you decided to just really shift things, what you were doing and what you were offering? Feel free to dive in and share that with us.

Jordan DePasque (01:50.828)
Yes?

Jordan DePasque (02:11.064)
Sure, yeah. So like I said, Krista reached out to me in the last year, probably about two years before that, I was wanting to get out of my corporate job so badly, but I just didn't know how. I had an income coming in from photography, but it wasn't enough to leave and focus on it full time. So ever since switching to Uncapped, I was able to apply Krista's methods.

raise my prices, give clients the full service that they're wanting and honestly needing. Because it's very important for you to serve your clients fully. So now I was able to quit my corporate and focus on that full time now.

Christa (02:46.496)
Yes!

Christa (02:54.713)
That's amazing. And so one thing that Jordan, I think makes you so cool to me is you really spent the time building this up while doing a corporate job. Like talk about being busy, but knowing something has to change. Yeah, like speak to that a little bit.

Jordan DePasque (03:06.969)
yes.

Jordan DePasque (03:11.022)
Yeah, so I so luckily I sat at a desk nine to five every day. So and it was very laid back physical therapy clinic. So I was able to do a lot of behind the scenes like emailing my clients editing photos. So that helped me a lot. But I would still like come home after work, have hours of galleries to edit, send out to clients, inquiries coming in like crazy having the book shoots after work at like six, seven o'clock at night. So it

I was getting to the point where I was getting burnt out, essentially.

Christa (03:42.242)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's so interesting, Jordan, because like with anything, there's always a risk to quitting that full-time job. But one of the things that like I'll coach students on is like, you kind of weigh that risk of like, okay, I'm doing so much now. If I had that much time back, I could take on that much shoots. Like how much further could I go if I didn't have the corporate job? But I think what a lot of people don't see is the grind that it takes leading up to that.

Jordan DePasque (04:10.502)
Yes, you need the grind. not just going to be handed to you. You have to put in the hard work, but it's worth it beyond belief.

Christa (04:13.068)
Yeah.

Christa (04:18.796)
Yeah, I love that. So tell us like, were you charging before you made that shift into being full service for portraits?

Jordan DePasque (04:26.19)
For portraits, I was charging $250 per a session. And then now my highest book portrait session is $1,700. So big difference. I think my average is around $1,000 right now, a little bit over $1,000. So yep, made just doing six photo sessions in six months last year, I made a total of $5,700.

Christa (04:29.816)
Okay.

Christa (04:36.919)
That's amazing. And so what do you think you're averaging per shoot?

Jordan DePasque (04:54.318)
and that would have taken me 23 photo sessions with my shoot and burn method.

Christa (05:01.28)
Okay, so in six shoots you made as much as if you had done 23 shoots before that. And I'm so glad you brought that up for the listener that's like, well, I don't know if full service is worth the time. And then it's like, you were doing this and you were, I know Jordan talking to you, you were so busy where it's like, you can't afford not to take the time to serve clients more fully.

Jordan DePasque (05:05.162)
Yes, yes.

Jordan DePasque (05:23.308)
Yes. And I actually, you know, I feel like I'm doing full service now, but I was still helping clients like with their outfits. And it's just like, you're putting more of a price point on what you're worth and you're not going with like the text back and forth because you're meeting beforehand on a zoom call and then just planning it all out in one specific zoom call. That way you don't have to do the back and forth. So that creates a lot of less stress as well.

Christa (05:31.988)
Yeah

Christa (05:50.85)
about you, you were already serving really well. And so it's really cool now that then your price can equate with that, right? Like at 250, when all your costs come out, which I know is why you jumped into uncapped, like you were craving that higher service to clients. And I also think that happens a lot with our gals who are also doing weddings as well, because they see the intensive service there and they just fall in love with that and want their portrait clients to experience that. So.

Jordan DePasque (05:53.828)
Mm-hmm.

Jordan DePasque (06:02.861)
Yeah.

Christa (06:16.865)
You're doing all of this and you're doing some weddings. Talk about the shift you made there.

Jordan DePasque (06:20.302)
Yes. Yes. So when I first started booking weddings, I've been doing weddings for three years now. I think the first wedding I charged was like $500. But once I got my feet wet, I was like, okay, I'm going to bump this up a little bit. I was charging $1,500 per wedding package. But even then after tax and time, that's really not anything at all. So now my highest booked wedding packages are $4,200.

Christa (06:49.431)
Amazing. I love it. And Jordan, I think you can even go up from there with upselling. yeah. And I was telling Jordan before this y'all when I was checking with her, I was like, that's amazing that literally the wedding average you started with like 1500, that's now almost your portrait average. And it's not rocket science to know weddings are way more work, like way more work. I love that Jordan. So.

Jordan DePasque (06:53.378)
I know, I think so too.

Jordan DePasque (07:05.686)
Yes, literally.

Jordan DePasque (07:12.59)
Sweat, for sure.

Christa (07:14.879)
I know we had chatted about this and I would love for you to share with our listeners that are like maybe they're feeling kind of stuck. They're like, my gosh, I really want to charge more, but can't like maybe talk about some of those mindset shifts that you had to take on or what did you tell yourself making those scary leaps in pricing that kept you motivated?

Jordan DePasque (07:31.33)
Yeah, well, I seen the results from Chris's past students, so I knew it would work, but it takes a lot of hard work grinding and just honestly believing in yourself. You have to get past the mental mindset of I can't do this. People won't pay this for me. And then even still to this day, I do get those thoughts in my mind. But then I'm like, no, Jordan.

Christa (07:56.534)
100%.

Jordan DePasque (07:57.656)
People have paid this for me in the past. I know what I'm worth. You just have to turn those thoughts around into a positive thought. that's when everything just starts to flourish. And the reviews that I've just received from my clients switching to full service, they're like, my god, Jordan, this is so fun. I can't wait for the next session. Thank you so much for meeting me ahead of time and planning out our outfits with us because I had no idea what I was doing. then it just makes it

so much fun and I just love it. I can't speak highly enough of it, honestly.

Christa (08:33.642)
That's amazing. So you're enjoying business more getting to serve at this level.

Jordan DePasque (08:37.998)
Yes, absolutely. Before it was just like, oh, another photo session that's going to take me an hour and then I'm just shooting time. I have to go back and edit these 70 images and they're going to only download five of them. And so it was just kind of like a waste of time, essentially.

Christa (08:49.162)
Yeah.

Christa (08:54.058)
Right, I love that. And one thing, our mindset coach would be so proud of you with everything you just said that I just had to stop and point out. And I think the first thing is Jordan, like you said, really believing in yourself and reminding you of your worth. Was that something that you had to remind yourself of often making this shift?

Jordan DePasque (09:13.536)
Yes, especially at first because I had, I normally have a lot of inquiries coming in, especially for portrait sessions. But when I first transitioned, it was hard for some people to wrap their head around. I can't imagine spending that much or I'm sorry, we need to go in other directions. So that does weigh down on you, but you, but every once in a while you will get those clients that are like, yes, Jordan, how do I book? Let's book right now. And then it's just like those other clients that didn't even want to, you know, work with you or.

invest the money in you, they can go with another shooting burn photographer, that's fine. But then you have the clients that want to pay for that. essentially those ones, you probably don't even want to work with them anyway.

Christa (09:59.2)
Yeah, that makes sense. And I know you're in a very competitive market too. So would you say Jordan that like you get even though you're making more, you get more nos?

Jordan DePasque (10:08.91)
Yes, I think I counted my no's. think within like three months I had around 30 inquiries and then I think like 20 of them were no's.

Christa (10:10.215)
Yeah!

Christa (10:17.543)
Okay.

Christa (10:23.059)
Yeah, which a 30 % booking rate is still actually really good. But especially Jordan, I knew for myself, and it's the same with weddings, right? Like the more you charge, the less it's like a no brainer. They really think through it and they have to understand the value. And so another thing that I wanted you to just kind of like tap into is some of the ways that you marketed to get yourself out there and get people in the door. And I was excited for you specifically to share about this because I think sometimes

Jordan DePasque (10:24.098)
So and then.

Yes.

Christa (10:52.809)
Photographers view marketing as like, I don't have time for that. They just need to come to me and I'll share my process. But like you were very proactive while working your other job, while doing weddings on weekends, on getting yourself out there more with your full service process. Would you be willing to dive into that a little bit?

Jordan DePasque (11:09.848)
Sure, yeah. So a lot of my marketing, you know, I was posting on social media a little bit, but I wasn't reaching my target audience. So that was a big marketing shift I had to do, just showing up on social media consistently every day. It doesn't have to be posting every day, but at least do stories every day, you know, draw those clients in with, hey, I'm doing a gift card giveaway.

That was a huge one that got a lot of clients in door for me. And then another thing, as I did go to a couple local boutique businesses and partner with some of them, that got the word out for a lot of it as well. And another marketing thing is I really, really upped my blogging and my SEO. That was a big help as well.

Christa (11:56.979)
I love that. And all of those things that you just mentioned, how consistent did you have to be at them to see the results? Yeah, it does.

Jordan DePasque (12:06.558)
gosh, every day almost, but it pays off now. Yeah. And like, I still do it now. I love doing it. I mean, it takes maybe 10, 15 minutes to do a blog post. It doesn't take long. It takes 10, 15 minutes to make a post on social media. And then you can sit down maybe on like a Wednesday, plan out your week of what you're going to post on each day. And that really lightens up the load too, instead of like, you know, it's Thursday. crap. I forgot to post today. What do I post? And then you already have all of that prepared.

Christa (12:32.637)
Right.

Jordan, that is amazing. So y'all can hear Jordan is a star student and I'm just gonna speak to her success of like, Jordan, you really showed up. Like these marketing strategies, consistency is key. You didn't just blog once and say, no one's finding me on Google. Like that's just not how marketing works. And I know that you really stressed yourself and did this on top of working another job. I remember I was building my business in college and I would sit there writing blog posts during class and one professor totally saw right through what I was doing.

Jordan DePasque (13:03.349)
no.

Christa (13:04.6)
My husband was actually in that class and I had a crush on him and he was like kind of interested in me and he's like, Krista, no one is taking notes at that time and you're over there just like clinking away on your laptop. Of course he's gonna call you out and ask you a question. So it's like you do what you can. You gotta do what you gotta do. But it is important to find a way to stay consistent in those avenues. so, because you, I mean, technically Jordan, you're growing two businesses, the portrait side and

Jordan DePasque (13:16.334)
my god, I love it. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, yeah.

Christa (13:33.21)
the wedding side. So like, how do you balance all of that?

Jordan DePasque (13:37.102)
I feel like at first it was kind of challenging, but now I've been doing it for so long. It just feels natural to me. Portraits, I I hop on them with a Zoom call for like 30 minutes with my consults. Weddings are the same exact thing. So it's really not different for both ends. It's just the investment piece.

Christa (14:01.491)
100%. So you do not have a portrait studio, correct?

Jordan DePasque (14:05.856)
I do not know. have a studio I rent by the hour, yeah, if I need to, but other than that, no, everything is via Zoom.

Christa (14:07.518)
Perfect.

Like for shoots if needed. Got it.

So you're able to do all of your sales and consult calls just virtually. Yeah. Perfect.

Jordan DePasque (14:20.512)
Yep, and I just share my screen with them to play the fun little slideshow of their images and yeah, they love it.

Christa (14:27.632)
gosh, Jordan, that's amazing. But hey, Jordan, I wanted you to just, again, I feel like you're so humble. Y'all could tell I'm like, come on, Jordan, share with us. What would your advice be? Say there's a photographer listening. Jordan, maybe they're where you were at last year and they're in a corporate job that is draining to them. They know something needs to change with their photo business. Let's say they have a business, they're charging for shoots right now, right? It's not that they're thinking of starting when they're there, but are just really seeing, hey, for me to make enough money,

Jordan DePasque (14:35.479)
Yeah.

Christa (14:57.597)
to take that next step, like what do I need to do? What service do I need to give to my clients? You've been there. What would you tell that person or that former version of Jordan?

Jordan DePasque (15:07.756)
Yes, when Crystal reached out to me, I was extremely hesitant. I think we went back and forth for like a solid month of like, I don't know if I want to do this. I don't know if I want to invest. But then I was like reading what her other students have been through and what they learned and how they succeeded. And that was a big jump of like, okay, I'm doing this. So I think full service is the best decision any photographer can make.

Christa (15:18.811)
Yeah.

Jordan DePasque (15:37.632)
whether you are, even if your portrait session average is only a thousand dollars, you know, it's better than the 250 and it's going to lead you to more exposure and you're going to learn more and then you're going to have a higher portrait session average and then you're going to have more clients wanting to come in the door and spend these high dollar amounts with you. So honestly, just full service, having products available for them like wall art.

Christa (15:48.114)
100%.

Jordan DePasque (16:07.31)
print, albums. Albums are huge for weddings. That could be an extra $3,000 upsell on a wedding package that they're not even gonna bat an eye about because they have these beautiful photos. They wanna look at them every day in their home. You know what I mean?

Christa (16:23.439)
Yes, that's amazing. Jordan, this was so wonderful. If someone listening wants to see your beautiful work or maybe reach out with questions or just to support you and thank you, where's the best place they can reach you? And we'll be sure to tag it in the show notes.

Jordan DePasque (16:25.739)
Yeah.

Jordan DePasque (16:38.702)
Yes, my Instagram Jordan Nicole photos Nicole is with an H and then Yes, it's not common. I feel like it's an I see Oli is the most common but yeah, it's with an H sure Nicole photos is probably where I'm most active is on Instagram My Facebook is the same and then my website is just www.jordannicolfotos.com. So everything my blogs on there my wedding

Christa (16:45.062)
I'm glad you said that because...

Jordan DePasque (17:07.848)
My weddings are on there, my portraits are on there, everything's on there.

Christa (17:11.888)
I love that. So if y'all are curious how she's doing all of that and like she said, showing up online for her people and for her clients, go give her a follow, send her a DM supporting her. Photographers, we need to encourage and help each other. And Jordan, I just feel so incredibly grateful and honored that you took the time to come over and pour into our students with your words of wisdom and just how quickly you grew your business and scaled your average. Thank you so much for being here today.

Jordan DePasque (17:40.134)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me and everybody who is hesitant, please just listen to what Krista has to say and just give it a chance because it's going to change your world. It's a lot of, like I said, a lot of hard work, a lot of mindset change, but the end result is amazing.

Christa (17:47.142)
Yeah

Christa (17:59.121)
and thank you so much for sharing that. We're so glad to have you today.

Jordan DePasque (18:01.162)
Yeah, thank you.