249. The Mindset of Luxury Pricing: The Only Thing Standing Between You and $10K is...

Let's get honest about what's actually keeping you stuck at your current price.

In this episode, we're going into the mindset work that has to happen before any strategy can work in...because if your brain isn't on board with the price, your couples are going to feel that before you even finish the sentence.

I'm breaking this down into four chapters:

Chapter 1: The Delusion of Self. 

Chapter 2: Bulletproof Confidence. 

Chapter 3: Value-Based vs. Cost-Based Pricing. 

Chapter 4: Your Pricing Suite is a Decision Architecture. 

Plus, the mindset shift I leave you with at the end of this episode is the one I come back to every single time...

--

🏛️ Join the waitlist for The Wedding Atelier, my high-touch business program for photographers ready to double their prices, book less, and get their weekends back

☕️ Apply for Private Atelier, 12 weeks of one-on-one coaching for photographers who need support on their own schedule. Limited spots at founder pricing before the price goes up

🥐 Subscribe to my newsletter, Biz Brunch
🤍 Come say hi on Instagram and Threads
✨ Loved this episode? Leave a rating & review on Apple or  Spotify  🫶🏽

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Speaker 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast. If you're listening to this, there's a pretty good chance that Wedding Atelier's doors are either open or about to close, and you're maybe somewhere in that beautiful, messy middle of, "I want this, but I'm not sure if I'm ready." So this episode is for you. Pull up a chair. We're going really, really deep today. So I'm calling this one the mindset of luxury pricing, here's why. Because before you decide to implement any strategy in your business, your brain has to be on board. It does. Because you are the driver of the ship. If you want to be the CEO and nobody else is telling you what to do, and you're the one telling you what to do, then your mindset has to be aligned with the dream that you want to achieve. So I've broken this down into four chapters so that it's really easy to digest, and if you're ever feeling stuck, this is a really good episode to listen to. It actually just came to me before I dropped my kids off at school, so we're getting raw and real today. So chapter one is called the delusion of self. The only reason that you decided you were ever ready to charge for your services, for your photography business, is because you were delusional. You started this business and you were really excited about it for a reason, but somewhere along the line, you may have gotten stuck. You may have over-invested, over-educated yourself. Maybe you're binging a bunch of YouTubes and podcasts, and everybody's telling you to do something different, and you feel like you have no clue what's going on, or you lost your CEO compass. And this is what I mean, 'cause I actually have gone through this and I remember being at a point in my life where I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Strategies came very easy to me. I implemented them, and things just kept getting better, but somewhere along the line, I over-invested into so many mentors telling me to do things that were completely different that I even got confused, when in the beginning, I was the one who decided to start this business, so why in the world am I not trusting myself? Not only do you need to be delusional, but you also need to trust yourself, unless you're self-sabotaging and never moving forward and staying in the same place for years and years. But if you have something you wanna implement and nobody has done it before, but you think, "Oh their work is different, they can charge that," or, "I really wanna charge 10K, but I know I'm stuck at 5K and it's gonna take me five years of experience, X amount of dollars in lenses, and this many business coaches to get there, I want you to go back to being your delusional self years and years ago when you thought you could do this, when somebody gave you your first $100 to shoot a portrait session, a senior session, a wedding session, or if you're like me, $75 for a wedding, and they ended up not paying you where I delivered the images. Either way, there was a part of you that was really excited about this business, and that's why you started in the first place. Or maybe you started it for a necessity. Maybe you saw people making money, and you're like, "I wanna do that, too." But that's the whole point. You were delusional to think that, "I can do that, too. I want to do that, too." So I want you to take a step back and just think, when did you decide that you hit your pricing ceiling? I don't want you to keep waiting, keep posting, procrastinating on the thing that you know you're supposed to do. I once heard the thing that you need to do the most only takes 30 seconds, and we do everything else but that one thing. And then when we take the time and just actually do that thing we're supposed to do, guess what? It only takes 30 seconds. I want you to stop convincing yourself that it's not possible for you specifically, because why would it be possible for everybody else but you? I want you to go back to being delusional when you slapped that 3K price, but I want you to take it a step further and push you out of your comfort zone, and imagine doubling or tripling that price and going beyond that. Once you hit 10K, there is no going back. It is just that easy to be able to serve 20K, 30K, and 40K clients. I've had my students go from doubling and tripling their price in 12 months, which is why Wedding Atelier is 12 months, because not only do we support you raising your prices, but I wanna support you as you double and triple them. And every time a thought comes up that keeps you from wanting to push past that 7K-and-beyond barrier We want to be able to catch it and be like, "That thought is not gonna support you as you scale your business beyond." I've had so many photographers go from 3K to 7K to 10K and beyond, and guess what? They didn't really change a whole lot. They just changed their positioning, their confidence, their delusion, and they did not look back, and they stopped lying to themselves about what was actually blocking their success. They stopped blaming the market, and they started building the business that we had dreamed in that first month together when you go over your vision plan. They stopped waiting to feel ready and just made the decision to become ready. I remember somebody telling me that you're never ready. You just have to decide. You decide. That's always the moment in the hero's journey where something happens, and they're just tired of feeling stuck, and you see them stand up and be like, "No, we're just gonna push through. We're just gonna keep going." Listen, that's the game of entrepreneurship, I hate to tell you. If you don't like pushing yourself, if you don't like doing mindset work, and you hate development, don't be an entrepreneur. 'Cause at every single step, there is something that's gonna come up, and you're like, "Whoa, where did that come from? Why am I so uncomfortable? Why am I nervous? Why am I anxious about this thing?" It's because your mind wants to protect you and keep you safe from rejection, failure, all the things that are uncomfortable. But I'm gonna challenge you. If you decide that you're gonna push past that feeling and do it anyway, oh my gosh, your life and business will change forever, I promise you. I've done this. I was having panic attacks going even from 5K to 7K. It's only $2,000, but for some reason, I remember just dr- I was driving. Where was I driving? Maybe Barnes Noble. I don't know. It was, like, the pandemic, and I'm, like, messaging my friends, and I'm DM'ing everybody, and one of my friends was like, "Allura 6K 7K is not luxury. Oh, Laura, it's not that serious. Get over yourself." Now, mind you, she was already booking 15K weddings at that point, so yeah, no, like 6K is not luxury when you're charging 15K. But it was that sentence that I was like, "I do need to get over myself. I just need to push through," because somebody somewhere is paying these prices. All of my friends are booked out at 10K and beyond. It's just me. It's just me and my 6, 7K that are chilling, and we're content. But there's just that, there was that little part of me that I was like, "But what if? What if I could double my prices again?" It was already traumatizing to double them in the first place. But to be able to say that I tripled my prices, I was having heart palpitations. And you know what? I pushed past it anyway, and I said, "You know what? Worst case scenario, somebody doesn't book it. Worst case scenario." But g- but then they did, and they booked it time and time again, and I was the one that had to be comfortable saying the pricing. They were totally comfortable spending it. It was me. Which leads me to my next part, is you need bulletproof confidence. let me paint this scenario for you. Have you ever gotten a sales call, and your stomach dropped, when it was time to say the pricing, they're like, "Oh what are your packages?" Or, "What's the investment?" were you nervous about saying your prices out loud? I know, yeah. Been there, done that. Got the T-shirt, the mug, everything. It's not necessarily a pricing problem, though. If we really look to the root of this, it's a confidence problem. And honestly, the number one rule of sales is confidence, okay? So if you're like, "I want to learn how to be confident," it starts with mindset, but you gotta be able to back it up, okay? When the sales process comes, when it's time to talk about pricing, when it's time to talk about deliverables and how you can serve them, you need to be positioned as the professional to be able to confidently get on a call and be like, "This is the price. This is what it includes. How does that sound?" your clients can feel when you're not confident in your own pricing, when you're not confident in what you can deliver, and they're not gonna invest in somebody on their wedding day, Which is a legacy moment that lasts a lifetime, if you're not even comfortable that you can deliver. And if you're shaking when you say, "My prices start at $8,000," and your energy is weird, and your eyes are looking like a deer in headlights, they're gonna feel that and be like we're gonna actually talk to a couple other photographers, and we'll get back to you." Bulletproof confidence is not about being cocky, okay? That is bro marketing, and I'm a girly pop. I just want people to work with me that wanna work with me. Do you trust my vision, my value, my work? Great. We will be a perfect fit together. This is not about pretending that you don't have nerves, because we're all nervous every time we get on a call It feels like an interview sometimes. But if you lead with value, confidence, personality, and a little bit of delusion, you will close the sale every single time, and I promise you, you'll actually be able to push past their budget with add-ons. I have done that. I remember when I raised my prices from 4 to 6K, which is the dead zone. Don't do this. But I was at 4,500 for my smallest package, which included nothing. And I remember I got an inquiry, and they said their budget was 4,500, but they were getting married at this very expensive venue. And I was like 4,500? This venue starts at 70K minimum, and It was a small wedding, too. And at the end of that call, I was able to get her to book my highest package with add-ons. She ended up spending $7,800, and our conversation was so fun. Usually, it was a half an hour, but with her, we were talking about bride stuff. We were talking about bougie weddings. We were talking about wanting to feel relaxed. I told her I've worked with models. She said, "Bet. I wanna be a model. I just didn't wanna make it a big production." I said, "Girl, let's just lean into the production. Let's go bad and bougie all the way." And she was like, "You know what? Yeah, we're gonna do that." And then she added on an album. Then she added on a print credit. Then she added on the glass bespoke box with the prints. It was just a conversation. We clicked, personality, delusion, and a lot of confidence. But also, I told her how I could serve her, so that's how I was able to get on the call and be confident that I could deliver. And of course, at that point in business, I've already shot 150-plus weddings, but it doesn't matter how many weddings you've shot if you're not confident in your pricing. And then after that call, I actually completely scrapped my prices and started over. I was like, "We're not starting at 4K." I didn't even wanna book a wedding at that price. Why would I even list that as my starting on my contact form, it's these little tweaks that we help you make that help you elevate faster than you having to figure out through trial and error. It took me about two and a half years through trial and error to pretty much get from that 5 to 10K price confidently without a coach, okay? We have so many experts in the industry that can help you with this. We have the copy coach that can help you with your website copy. We have the SEO audits every month, so you can make sure that your keyword research is coming up as clear as possible. And then we also have our luxury wedding coach, who's booking five-figure weddings every single month, help you position yourself to only attract the high-end premium clients. And then of course, you got me, your sales girly, who will tell you everything, no fluff, and make sure that you are confident enough to be able to stand behind this. It's really not that deep. It's just these small tweaks, a little bit of delusion, a lot of confidence. And we're gonna lean into the next part, which is value-based versus cost-based pricing I did some pricing audits a couple months ago, and a lot of their pricing, especially the starting price, was cost-based. Here's where things get a little strategic. Most photographers base their work on cost. how much does this take me? What are my expenses? What do I need to make per hour?" Then they add a little bit of a buffer, maybe $1,000, and they're like, "That's it. This is a profitable package price." And that model will keep you broke, y'all. I'm so sorry, but it's true. Cost pricing is you just doing the math. It's your bare minimum. That's not even your get-out-of-bed rate, okay? Value-based pricing is you understanding the value of your services, what clients are willing to pay. The overall value of being a wedding photographer is we are capturing moments that last a lifetime. They outlive the people inside of the images. When a bride books a 9K starting photographer, she's not paying just for 10 hours of your time, a hard drive of files, X amount of digital images, the second shooter, the album. She's paying for her version of her wedding day that she sees in your portfolio. She's paying for the confidence that comes with knowing her photos are covered, you have years of experience, you have tons of wedding experience. She's paying for the experience of working with someone who makes her feel like a priority, and she's confident that you can deliver on that promise. That's not something you can just calculate by the hour. I want you to get out of being too logistic and start calculating it in a value-based way so your pricing completely changes. Value-based pricing asks a different question, not what does this cost me, but what is this worth to my couple? And if you're doing your job right, that number is way higher than whatever you're probably charging now. Chapter four, you need a profitable pricing suite. Let's talk about structure because it's not just what you charge, it is how you present them. Now, I've been doing pricing suite offers, reviews for my friends literally since I learned how to do this on my own. Since 2021, I have been doing pricing suite offers for my friends to be able to charge higher and higher. So a profitable pricing suite isn't a menu, it's a decision architecture. You're guiding your client toward a specific package, and the way that your packages are built either supports that or works against it, and this is why I have to do pricing audits all the time. Here's what I see all the time: photographers with a 3K package, $4,000 package, and a $6,000 package, and then they wonder why everyone books the middle one. Because you built it that way. The middle feels safe, but it's actually not what they really want. And to be honest, the, even the smaller package is more ideal because it's 3K, 4K. There's only $1,000 difference, and I bet the deliverables are highly different. The way you present your packages, the way you present your prices, is actually telling your couples what to pick and why. That is all the psychology of pricing built from the top down. Your highest package gets described in a way that makes it the obvious answer for anyone who values photography, right? And your lower tier, your lower package, should exist as a genuine alternative for a specific client, not a discount for a client that's scared of the price. So when your pricing suite is built right, you don't have to negotiate with yourself before the conversation, and your client stops shopping for the cheapest option because the structure told them there's a better way to think about your services, your values, and your overall experience. Now, here's a mindset shift I wanna leave you with as I end this Mindset of Luxury Pricing masterclass, is: Somebody somewhere charges this price and books it, so why can't I? This is the most important mindset shift of all because it's true. I know based on my students' results, that somewhere right now, a photographer in a small town or a small city in the Midwest is booking 8K weddings minimum, not because they're more talented than you, not because they have a bigger following. Oh my gosh, nobody even cares about that. It's because they decided they were the photographer who wants to charge that, and then they built every single thing around that decision: their rebrand, their messaging, their artist story, their pricing suite, their add-ons, their bespoke custom proposal. We treat premium pricing like it's something you earn once you arrive at this invisible milestone. But the photographers who are getting there the fastest, okay, that are going from 3K to 7K to 10K, they're the ones who just decided, and then they figured out the rest along the way. And I've seen it. I had a student match her corporate salary in six months of joining the program. We had a student hit 104K in her first year. Another one booked multiple 10K weddings and then left her nine-to-five. None of them were waiting to be ready. they just made a decision, and then Kept along the path until it happened. So if someone somewhere charges this price, and they do, the only real question is, what's actually stopping you from being that person? If the answer is luxury positioning, strategy, marketing, messaging, and a community that holds you to it, that's exactly what we're building inside of Wedding Atelier. The doors are closing soon, and you know where to find me. Link in the show notes. If you have any questions, send me a DM. I'm here all day, y'all. I will send you a voice DM, I promise. If you ever need a mindset shift about raising your prices, this is the episode to listen to. I cannot wait to support you all inside of this program before we raise the price. Also, we have a six-month pass if you're like, "Oh my gosh, the price is too steep for me," at half, okay? Half the price, the six-month sprint, then you can live long and prosper, or you can renew if you want to stay for another six months. Link again is in the show notes, and I'll see you in the next one.