216. Fix Your Mindset. Raise Your Prices (here's how)

In this episode, host Alora shares the significant role of mindset in achieving success, particularly in the wedding photography business.

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Hello and welcome back to the Wedding and Podcast. I have my voice back. It only took about two months of eating ginger juice every single day and drinking tea. Constantly. But I think what really helped was taking a couple days off of recording curriculum. I have been putting out anywhere between one to two hours a week of new curriculum, new content, and I'm just so excited for what my alumni get to experience. I'm so excited for all of these new and fresh strategies that I'm able to share, but really I'm more excited about the mindset module. I did not know. That mindset was one of my secret sauces, and so I don't know if it's because I am left-handed. I have a divergent brain in a sense. So I see things for what they are. I'm already no nonsense. When I started in this business, I was about 21 when I shot my first wedding. And if you know anything about being in your twenties, it is just a very vulnerable time. You don't know who you are. Everyone's asking you what do you wanna be, what do you want to do? And half the time people don't know unless you're like my husband who wanted to be an engineer since he was eight years old. That's him. That was not me. I wanted to be everything. I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a gymnast. I wanted to be a writer. I could go on and on. And I always talk about these a little bit in some of my courses. Like I wanted to be this. I wanted to be that. They actually all come together now that I'm older, I can weave in all of my different talents into the things that I have done and accomplished, and that's so fun. But one thing I've learned is you don't, have to just pick one thing, but growing up you have this vision of what you think adulthood should be. You have this vision of what you think success should look like, you come to find out as you go through life, nobody really knows what they're doing. Nobody really has it figured out. They're just taking the first step and then they're taking the next step. And that's one thing I've learned about mindset is that you just gotta keep blindly taking a step and you don't know where it's gonna lead, but you're hoping for the best and then you're planning for the rest. Talking about mindset in a way of playing in your business, telling yourself. It's okay to feel the feelings, but it's even more okay to position yourself to move forward. What can you say? What can you do to move forward faster and not cycle in the same thought or story that's keeping you stuck? For some people for years, they'll be like, I've been at this pricing for this long and it's because I thought this, and I'm ready to finally change that, and I'm like, great. Hop into the mindset module. I have trainings on that to help you reposition your brain from, I'm just an artist to, I am now stepping into the CEO role. I need to position this like a business. I'm still an artist at heart. I always will be. That's the cool thing about being a wedding photographer or a photographer or creative in general, is that you get paid to make art. At the end of the day, that is such a blessing. That is such an honor and a privilege. Most people have to do very much day-to-day admin work all the time, every day without being able to create and free flow and produce beautiful work. And so I say it all the time, like being a wedding photographer, it is an honor, it is a privilege, but just being an artist and just thinking like an artist is not going to take you to 10 k weddings. Plain and simple. It will take you probably to about 5K if you can get to 5K. A lot of people can't. A lot of people can't without strategy and a lot of mindset work, and so I'm realizing that yes, this program is about sales and marketing and getting inquiries and booking them, but man. The foundation of the whole thing has always been and will always be mindset because you have to literally coach yourself into doing something terrifying. And of course we can help you with that. But it's just really interesting to see like how much mindset is the root of everything. And then me having such a no fluff approach to mindset, self-correcting, always checking in, being self-aware, Transforming negative stories into a positive movement. All of these things really helped shape me as the strategist for wedding photographers. And of course, I've been through all of these things. I shot my first wedding at 21. I had the actual audacity to charge a thousand dollars and I've only shot three weddings. What? What? But charging past that, I could not do it. That was my ceiling at the time until I was second shooting with somebody for years and years. And finally she was like, your pricing should be starting at 1500. And I was like, I can't do that. I can't even, I could barely charge one K. Like I can't even, why was 1500 so much money, baby Laura, please. So I'm like thinking back on that, being like, wow, I really could not charge 1500 because I was terrified that I had to make the pricing tier of 1500, 2K and three K and there was just no way I could charge that. There was just no way. Even though I was sick of all of the budget weddings, I was sick of being treated like other, I don't even know another way to explain it. Parents would send me emails being like, you need to respond to me 'cause I'm the one paying for this wedding. I signed the check and so like finally raising my prices and positioning my brand away from those kind of couples. It changed the game for me. And so I remember my price was starting at 1500 and then I remember my middle package was like 2K, and I thought nobody was gonna book that. That was just my middle package. Y'all, I think this is what I did, and this is what I normally see is like 1500 2K, 2,500. I'm like $500 difference. Yay. Two hours extra and you get a million things realizing after about, I don't know, 10 weddings of that, of oh, I can raise my prices. Like people will pay this, people will invest in this. People value what I have to bring to the table. People value my work, my art, and that took me all the way to three K, but it did not take me from three K to 5K to seven K to 10 K to 15 k. And so I realized that it's a constant mindset check of being like, okay you really got yourself to this level, but can you get yourself to the next level? And when you are able to have the tools you need to transform your mindset at every single pricing bracket and level and demographic. As you grow, as you evolve, and just being able to be confident in yourself and all the investments you made, what you bring to the table, your experience, like all those things roll into your pricing. And that's why we really teach value pricing. 'cause it's not just, oh, this is my hourly rate so I can pay my bills. Like we do have that, don't get me wrong. We do have that, but. That's just the beginning, and that's just like the bare minimum, bare bones. That's not including all of your experience. That's not including what you bring to the table. That's not including all the weddings you've shot, all the gear you've bought, all the techniques you've learned, and every single lighting situation. It's not including your charisma. It's not including your ability to find grandpa, no matter where he goes when he's leaving during the family pictures. All of those things roll into your pricing. And I'm just learning that mindset and pricing are best friends. If you have the mindset, your pricing will never be a problem ever. And so when people fill out their application for our program, and I'm like, okay, cool. What do you think your problem is? What are you struggling with in your business? I'll light 'em up in the dms and they're like, oh, it's not pricing, it's marketing. And I'm like, okay, cool. So how do you know that? And they'll say they didn't book me, but they booked someone else and they booked them at a higher rate. And I was like, then it was your package because for some reason, either you were too affordable, or they thought you lacked the experience to give them what it is they're really looking for. If they were paying more money for somebody else. It was 1000% pricing and positioning. And so it's never just oh, I need more clients, because you don't have to book 50% of them. but when you figure out the data, which I don't really recommend this, I don't recommend asking them who they went with, why they went with someone else, and at what price point, because that's just going to annihilate. The mindset you have at that moment, because you already did in both the client and now you're wondering why you're so terrible and why what you're doing is not working? I do believe in figuring out the problem with the mentor. I don't believe in asking the client what you could do better. What if they just weren't a good fit? In this example, it does make sense like, okay, now that you're letting me know why they did it and where they went, it's your pricing and positioning. Plain and simple. And so I was looking and I was like, okay, your website, it's not easy to navigate. I'm looking at the brand. The brand was really good actually. So that's probably what inquired them to reach out in the first place. But something about the packages, something about positioning, something wasn't selling them, and we have to figure out what that is. And so there's just so much that goes into booking clients. It's not just one thing and sometimes it's not what you think it is. And so I just wanted to pop in here as a bonus episode because I just wanted to share that with you, like how important mindset is, and if you can try really hard to work on mindset this year. And I will be dropping in some mindset episodes here and there just to give you a mindset series so that you can just keep going forward. You can do what it is you need to do. You can kill those negative stories once and for all, so you can finally take action. But in the meantime, while I'm still waiting for my voice to be 100%. I am gonna be dropping in some incredible industry experts and friends of mine who are sharing incredible ways for you guys to get more inquiries, book more weddings, get more visibility. It is a marketing and sales summer. I'm so excited for that. If you have any recommendations. For episodes or even have questions about wanting Aate, go ahead and slide in my dms. I will promise to send you a voice message. Even when my voice was gone, y'all, I was sending voice messages. I was dedicated, dedicated to the vision, dedicated to the process at what cost, my voice. But anyway, I wanted just to pop in here 'cause it's been a minute since I said how you guys. And I just wanted to remind you that we are updating everything, I'm getting all of my systems set up after the rebrand. It was just so much work and so fun. But it was a lot like February, March, April, may, four months dedicated to a rebrand. In terms of strategy, delivery, photo shoot, like it was a lot with kids, a lot with a busy personal life. I shared in my Instagram stories the other day what my schedule looks like. You guys could see like a blurry version of my calendar. I'm talking stacked. There was a day where I had five calls in one day and I was like well, I did. I do this. Like you live and you learn, and my husband says this all the time, why do you do this to yourself? And I always say, I don't know. Clearly I'm the problem, so I'm gonna be working on time management. I have very strict business boundaries, in terms of like cutoff times, goals for the day. But I don't think I have really strict boundaries on okay, only two calls a day max, and then three calls a week versus jamming everything in 'cause I feel like I want to push really hard and rest later, but then when I'm resting I'm absolutely defeated. I'm like absolutely rotting in bed. I'm talking like watching pop the balloon with my husband who says that the show is dumb, but yet he watches it religiously stops what he's doing. It pauses in front of the TV like, you guys know what I'm talking about. If the girlies know what I'm talking about, they say, oh this show is so dumb, and they're peeking around every corner. Every corner and trying to figure out what is going on. There literally was a time where a girl walked out and he came out of a different room and said, pop. I was like, you don't even know what she looks like. What are you, pop? What are you popping for? What? Anyways, I hope you guys are having an incredible summer. It is actually 50 degrees right now in Michigan. What? This is ghetto. I wanna refund. Like what? What is this weather? I don't. Questions, literally questions, and then it's gonna be like 80 degrees next week. What? What? Where was my spring? Like I had no spring. It's just been rain and winter coats on and off. Anyway, hope you have an amazing summer. If you have a summer right now, wherever you are, and I will see you the next time I hop on with the mindset series. But for now, enjoy our incredible guest experts. Go ahead and apply for Wedding Atelier if you wanna join on the backend. While we're dropping in new modules and lessons every single week, and we're pretty much doing it live, it's great. It's amazing. We love it. We love the energy, and in about a week or so, I am going to have my new and updated free training based on your guys' feedback. It sounds like you guys just. Want to get more inquiries, book more weddings. So I'm gonna make a free training for that. And then if you stay till the end, you can fill out a form and I will send you three strategies you can do today or that day that you can implement right away, that you can book your next wedding. So you don't wanna miss that once it launches. Feel free to keep checking my website until it's up, but in the meantime I will see you guys in the next episode. Bye.