Freedom Focus Photography

Bait and Switch

• Nicole Begley, Heather Lahtinen • Episode 314

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314 - Ever felt a twinge of guilt when offering products after a model call or charity session? You’re not alone. In this week’s episode, Heather and I dive into one sneaky thought that’s quietly killing your photography sales, the fear of pulling a “bait and switch.” We’ll talk about what that really means, why your brain might think you’re doing something shady, and how to shift your mindset so you can confidently sell without hesitation.

What to Listen For:

  • What the term “bait and switch” really means (and why it’s not what you’re doing)
  • Why photographers feel guilty offering products after “free” sessions
  • How this mindset silently sabotages your conversions
  • Nicole’s personal experience building a thriving business through charity auctions
  • The difference between transparency and deception in your client communication
  • The #1 shift that turns your marketing into genuine service
  • How to educate your clients before the session so they feel confident and informed
  • Why your thoughts about money and worth show up in every sales conversation
  • How to serve from integrity while still running a profitable business

If your brain’s been whispering, “I don’t want to trick people,” it’s time to turn down that noise. You’re not being deceptive, you’re being transparent and generous. When you lead with clarity and confidence, clients feel it. Hit play to hear how to shift your mindset and finally stop second-guessing your sales process.

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Nicole Begley (00:00)
In today's episode, we're talking about one sneaky little thought that might be quietly killing your photography sales, especially if you are doing charitable marketing or donating sessions to silent auctions. And that is that sneaky thought about questioning whether it's a bait and switch or if you're being shady and sketchy and salesy. Well, today Heather and I are breaking this down, talking about why that fear shows up, how it wrecks your conversions and

what to think instead so you can actually sell confidently from a place of service without feeling like a criminal. Stay tuned.

Nicole Begley (00:35)
I'm Nicole Bagley, a zoological animal trainer turned pet and family photographer. Back in 2010, I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving $2,000 $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six-figure businesses.

that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place. With over 350,000 downloads, welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast.

Nicole Begley (01:35)
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the freedom focus photography podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Begley. And back again, we have my partner in crime, Heather Lahtinen. Hi Heather.

Heather (01:45)
Thank you so much for having me.

Nicole Begley (01:47)
my gosh. Of course, of course, you know, I love having you on these podcasts because I just love to like banter back and forth about all the things and talk about all the brain things and the mind things and the thought things and just all of that stuff. It's so fascinating.

Heather (02:01)
I know it's

my favorite thing to do. Honestly, I just love this stuff. I love uncovering the reasons why I do things and why I don't do the things that I know I should be doing. And then the results that I'm getting, it's like understanding my responsibility in my results is incredibly empowering. So I was talking about this on an elevate call recently. I had this shirt. Well, first of all, when's the last time you had a shirt?

that you wore so much, actually wore it out. Like you had to throw it away.

Nicole Begley (02:34)
I mean,

I did that with a pair of really comfy leggings.

Heather (02:38)
⁓ wait, the ones that ripped, you had them rip. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (02:42)
Yeah,

ripped. then had one of my students gave them to me, my gosh, years ago, were called them the bird pants. They were like, had these crazy bird patterns on them. I love them. They were so comfortable. And just one day they, they could bird no longer.

Heather (02:58)
my gosh. Okay. So anyway, I had this shirt that I actually wore out and had to throw away and it was a workout shirt and it said, everything is my fault. Now you have to be really careful with something like this because I was saying it in a way that's like, I'm in control. I'm in control and everything is my responsibility, which means I can response my way out of it or into it or whatever.

Nicole Begley (02:59)
Hmph.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Nah.

Heather (03:23)
Some people look at that and they use it against themselves as judgment and they're like, well, everything's my fault. You know, there's a totally different posture there. So anyway, my point was when we talk about our thinking and our mindset and our brain, it's fascinating for me to uncover how my own thoughts are creating my own results because then I'm empowered to change them, which is brilliant.

Nicole Begley (03:26)
Ha ha.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely. my gosh. So what are we talking about today?

Heather (03:53)
Okay, so this came up on an elevate call recently, but you know, when I bring something to you, it's not because it came up once. ⁓ It's probably come up 20 times in the last month. I hear it repeatedly. So let me start with where it comes from. You know how some photographers, a lot of photographers will do model calls or some type of something either for charity or

Nicole Begley (04:00)
Yeah, right.

huh.

Uh-huh.

Heather (04:22)
or some version of people get a free session or maybe a discounted session and a print or a digital. You're familiar with this, yes? Yeah. Okay. So then there's always the opportunity in the backend to buy more. Of course there is. if you took 50, if you took

Nicole Begley (04:32)
Yep. Yeah, yeah, yep, yep.

Mm-hmm.

Heather (04:45)
ton of photos. Let's say you delivered 10, 10 or 15 amazing photos and the client gets to choose one free one because they want a silent auction, right? Whether that's a printer, digital, whatever it is, they get to pick their one free one. have choices, which is great. And then you say, hey, would you like to purchase a package? Would you like to buy all of the digitals? Would you like more prints? That's just like value offer on the backend. They are not

required to do anything. Give me your approach or your thoughts to this.

Nicole Begley (05:16)
Mm-hmm.

OK, well, you know that I believe there are approximately thirty seven thousand five hundred and eighty two different ways to price our business and to run our photography businesses. Approximately Heather. It's not an exact number.

Heather (05:38)
No, you don't say.

Nicole Begley (05:41)
But anyway, so there are there are so many different strategies out there from my personal viewpoint on it. I am a big, big, big stickler of making sure my clients know what to expect from the beginning. So I have known photographers that ran very successful businesses that would get the clients in, do the session, and they maybe wouldn't see pricing and it wouldn't be inexpensive.

Heather (05:57)
Yes.

Nicole Begley (06:10)
until the sale session and it worked for them. They ran successful businesses. Their clients were happy. I personally do not want to run my business that way. So my personal rule is that like I'd love these kinds of things that you're talking about. I built my business on charitable marketing and various different offers and you know from silent offer, silent auctions to like a full session fee, but

Heather (06:12)
⁓ okay.

Nicole Begley (06:40)
you know, the charity promotes it and they get a little bit of the session fee, ⁓ that I built my business that way, but I always, always, always at the initial kind of point of contact where I would talk to the client would let them know, Hey, here's what's included. And then there's an opportunity to purchase more later. So, ⁓ and then it depended how much like what the actual workflow was. like a silent auction could be, Hey,

Heather (06:58)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Nicole Begley (07:09)
This is what's included. You know, I always did a session and a $500 artwork or album credit that and then I would have a price list out with it or I would have on there that, you know, artwork starts at and I usually had something that started close to that $500. But oh my gosh, I can't even tell you all my silent auctions. I think I had I don't know. I never had anybody.

that just took that. had one client that's like, ⁓ we don't want to spend anything extra. I just want that. But like they didn't want to do it because they felt bad doing that, even though I was like, no, that's totally fine. Please let me do the session for you. So I think I finally did talk them into doing like, listen, we'll do a shorter session. Like, please, you purchased this with charity. Let me let me do this for you. ⁓ And they still ended up buying a little bit extra. ⁓ And then.

I had, would say maybe five to 10 % maybe purchased around a thousand dollars extra, but 80 % would purchase kind of my average session at the time. like 2,500 to $3,000 purchase and that other five or 10%, I forget what's left. I think about 10 % ended up being my biggest sales ever. So that worked really, really well for me.

Heather (08:24)
Right.

Nicole Begley (08:31)
⁓ and then of course there's the other things like a session fee fundraiser where it's, know, okay, Hey rescue, you're going to promote this to your followers, your supporters, and it's going to be a full Nicole Bigley photography session. ⁓ but it's a little bit of a better offer than what people could get if they went straight to my website. So maybe I added, an extra credit, a extra couple prints. usually did a value add instead of a discount. ⁓ and then part of the session fee would get donated to the charity.

But when they contacted me, I ran them through all my normal client education experiences. Like this is what I focus on. This is what most clients spend. Here's your possibilities, X, Y, Z, and we go from there. So that was my very long winded way to let you know what I think about those things.

Heather (09:17)
No, I love that you actually answered several of my questions because I was going to ask how these converted for you.

Nicole Begley (09:21)
you

⁓ extremely well built my business on them. Love them. If I wanted to my business today, I would still use them. ⁓ yeah, that and email marketing, and then just focusing on getting leads onto my email list and making offers to them would be. Yeah.

Heather (09:38)
Okay, boom, done. Like we

can stop there. That's what builds a six figure, six figure plus business, correct?

Nicole Begley (09:45)
Yeah,

and the more people you serve, because all of us, again, we're a personal brand, we're a small business, our clients love us, love their experience. And naturally, when other people that they know are like, oh, I should get some family photos. Oh, I just got a new dog. Oh, then they're jumping in with a recommendation. And that's how the momentum gets built in your business. So that's how you can get to the point where you're really. I don't want to say.

Okay. I don't want to say that you're not marketing because I feel like you always need to be marketing, even if that is keeping tabs with your list and keeping up with communication with them, but you don't need to be maybe as like pedal to the metal. Like let me get my name out in front of everybody. And like really like it becomes a little bit easier as that momentum builds.

Heather (10:37)
gosh, that was a 10 minute, less than 10 minute masterclass in how to build a business. That's it. That is so straightforward. Yeah, yeah, right, right. Give me a call. Right. Nicole just gave you all of the answers and if you struggle, that's totally fine. I'll help you. But I agree with you. I think the way it like what you just said makes perfect sense to me. And the fact that you converted

Nicole Begley (10:42)
Done. Now what thoughts are you having that's preventing you from doing that and go talk to Heather about those.

Heather (11:07)
the people who won or the charitable donations, whatever it was that you converted most a significant portion, 80 % of those people converted to a 2,500 to $3,000 sale. And then there was five to 10 % that was your biggest sale ever through that is unbelievably remarkable and amazing and, easy. If you have the thoughts that support that

Nicole Begley (11:36)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (11:37)
conversion. Okay, why am I drawing out my word?

Nicole Begley (11:43)
There was not a tech glitch. Heather actually said it that way.

Heather (11:48)
I'm drawing out my words because there's a point I'm about to make here. And that is you have to have the thoughts that support those level of conversions. And if there are a series of thoughts that lead to people having either very small sales on the back end or zero. So I've talked to a lot of people who have done all of these things, but the only difference is every single one of their people is taking the absolute minimum free product and they're not converting.

And I have some theories. I have some theories. Okay. It has to do with your thoughts in your approach around what you're doing in today. In this brief episode, I want to cover just one of those theories. So I'm not saying this is it 100 % of the time, but I'm saying this is the one that I've heard at least 20 times in the last month.

Nicole Begley (12:20)
huh. I have some theories.

Heather (12:44)
This thinking is preventing you from, you know, 3K, 10K conversions. Do you want to hear it? Are you ready for that? People say to me, Heather, I'm doing everything Nicole says. I'm following her model for all of this, but they're not converting. And you know what? And by the way, I'm just, I'm so afraid they're going to, I don't want it to be a bait and switch.

Nicole Begley (12:51)
Yes.

⁓ huh. The good old bait and switch.

Heather (13:10)
The good old bait and switch.

This is the most deadly thought. This is the thought that is killing those sales. This thought.

Nicole Begley (13:16)
⁓ 100

% Boom. Done. If you think that you're done. Okay. Well, I mean, if I feel like, yes, there can be others that can prevent it too. But if you're thinking this, like you can't, you cannot think that and have a successful, ⁓ sale at this. There might be, you might not think that. And there might be some other thoughts that are hampering your efforts, but let's get really clear.

Heather (13:21)
Boom!

some other thoughts and reasons, but this is the biggest.

Nicole Begley (13:45)
What is a bait and switch?

Heather (13:46)
Thank

you for asking, Nicole Begley. Thank you. A bait and switch is a deceptive sales tactic where a business lures, okay, whoa, that's, yeah, ominous, right? That lures customers with an attractive offer, referred to as the bait, but then discourages them from purchasing it instead, instead pushing them to buy a more expensive or

Nicole Begley (13:55)
Deceptive and luring. I like this. I like this.

Heather (14:14)
inferior product, which is quote, the switch. This practice is illegal and considered a form of false advertising. Common examples include an item advertised at a very low price that is then out of stock. A product advertised with specific features that is replaced by a lower quality version or a job offer

Nicole Begley (14:33)
Mmm, mm-hmm.

Heather (14:43)
that differs significantly from the actual work.

Nicole Begley (14:48)
Okay. So we're not doing any of those. It would be if I said, okay, here for the silent auction, you want a session in a guild canvas. And then they come in and I say, Oh, no, no, no, that's out of stock. You just get this small print and yeah, you have to buy other things. yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Heather (14:50)
Right, so.

Yeah, sorry. Sorry. Guilt guilt is out of stock. Yeah, they're busy this

week. So it's like, okay, I want you to ask yourself, ⁓ if your brain believes on some level that you are doing something illegal.

Nicole Begley (15:19)
Yeah, that you're being deceptive,

shady, terrible person. Yes. Yes. Uh-huh.

Heather (15:23)
Illegal, criminal, that you are operating at the criminal level. If your brain

believes that, do you think you can convert them to a higher sale ever?

Nicole Begley (15:31)
No, no,

no. Can I, can I jump in here because I feel like there is in the industry, unfortunately, there is like one practice out there that while technically is not criminal or bait and switch, but it's where I think a lot of these people feel like what they're doing is falling into this, this bucket, but it's not. And that is there was

Heather (15:36)
Yes.

Yeah.

Nicole Begley (15:58)
⁓ it was a while ago, probably pre-COVID, there was quite a trend in the industry to do these model call sessions and market them as free, free, free. you're booking it. It's free, free, free. I'd like all of it is free and you're going to get the one print. So the entire before the shoot experience, no one mentions anything about anything else to be sold.

Heather (16:25)
Mm.

Nicole Begley (16:25)
It

is all just marketing free. Your whole messaging is this is free. Everything is free. You don't have to worry about it. Everything is free. And then they come in for the session. And then afterwards it's like, sure. You get your print, but here, didn't want to buy more things that again, technically, I don't know if you could technically put it into criminal bait and switch, but if you look at it as do I want to run my business that way? It's not the best way to run your business.

Heather (16:39)
Right.

No.

Nicole Begley (16:53)
All you have to do, you can still do a model call and have a free session and give them a five by seven, eight by 10 digital file. But all you have to say is, hey, session's free and this is included. And if you would like to, no obligation, but there'll be items to purchase afterwards. And if you want to take it a step further, here's what's available afterwards in the prices. That's all, that's all you need to do.

Heather (17:14)
Yes, perfect.

So straightforward and so genuine and legal and simple. But if you if you really believe that you're being deceptive and you're luring people in illegally. I mean, your brain, you know, nobody listening wants to be a criminal. But if the brain. I wouldn't think so.

Nicole Begley (17:27)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

No, this is not the podcast they would be listening to.

Heather (17:38)
wouldn't

think so. But if their brain is trying to convince them that they are, of course, here's what happens is they hesitate. They hesitate to share and they pull back. So they're not fully giving like you had done something really key when you were explaining. You're like, give them the full experience in the sales session. So they know everything that's available. I show them product. They know what it costs. It's all very transparent, but you still approached it with very clean

Nicole Begley (17:45)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (18:08)
thinking.

Nicole Begley (18:09)
And I told them from the beginning, like, hey, here's what's included. Here's what's also available. And if you guys just listen to our last episode that was last week about being visible, this is again that that thinking the service based ⁓ inquiry or actually back to the sales thing where like I am simply approaching it as here's what to offer. You can make your decision.

I am not attached to, they have to purchase more. I am okay if they walked away for free and like whatever was included. If they did a silent auction, they didn't spend another dime. By me contributing to that silent auction, I had to be okay with that mentally. Like it had to be fine. So then when they book, I know that I'm already okay with that, but I also know

that I have additional service that I can offer them. And I am just letting them know that, hey, I am so excited that you want, I can't wait to work with you. Here's exactly what's included. Here's what a full session entails. This is no obligation, but if you would like to XYZ, most clients end up doing XYZ. could go, you and then you just, give them the regular experience, but you stay really clean and delineated that it is not your job to

get them to decide to do more. You are simply presenting facts and letting them decide.

Heather (19:38)
Okay, and this is because your posture was one of just ease and service and offering and invitation. And it was clean in that you were not attached to a big sale on the backend. So you were, and you know, and this was back in the day before we even had all of these words about managing our thoughts or understanding that what we're thinking is driving feelings and behaviors.

Nicole Begley (19:46)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (20:03)
You were doing that so well back then that it exploded your business, but it was because of how you were thinking about it. It was a little bit more natural for you. It's not for most people, which is fine. Again, it's just like making an observation and understanding that if I'm having a thought that I am, okay, let me back up and say this. People will often say,

All of my charity auction, model call people, all of them are just taking the free print because they're not my ideal client. And they're sort of using that as their reason.

Nicole Begley (20:38)
Hmm.

And here's a thought that I never had ever is my thought because I would choose the silent auctions I donated to. My thought was always like, anyone that buys there is going to be my target client because I donated to the silent auctions that had my target client at them. And I also donated them. My goal from that donation was not money. Yes, I hope for a sale. I was happy for a sale.

Heather (20:56)
Boom.

Yes.

Nicole Begley (21:12)
My goal is marketing. My goal is to get my name and my business in front of people that were my target market. And then when somebody bought it, my goal is to serve them so they would tell their friends.

Heather (21:23)
straightforward. Seems like it would work. And guess what? It did. But it's like, if we say, and again, please, if you're listening to this, and you and I have had this discussion, this is not judgment. This is just like, this is so interesting. I'm just curious how this worked out when you say

Nicole Begley (21:26)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Heather (21:43)
Well, I guess it's because they're not my ideal client. That's why they took the free thing. Then you have no recourse here. You're like, okay, you shrug your shoulders and you're like, it's out of my hands. I have no responsibility. There's no control. I guess maybe I need to find better charities, better auctions to participate in to find the right ideal client. And there might be a part of that that's true. There might be. But I'm more concerned with my role in my thinking that's

putting the energy out there that's either promoting the sale or hindering the sale? Am I compelled to share my packages or am I hesitating to share because I think I'm a criminal? That's what I want to examine are what are the thoughts.

Nicole Begley (22:24)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And

that goes along with any pricing. Wherever, like somebody found you on the internet and called you up and booked a full session. If you are feeling that your pricing is outrageous, unfair, too expensive, what are they going to think about me? Like if you do not feel good about your pricing, it's going to be the same issue.

Like, I don't know why they just bought this and they must not have been my ideal client. And. OK, time out. Sometimes our not ideal client does book us. Sometimes our not ideal client does win the marketing thing that we're doing for marketing. But. Do we want to treat them still as an ideal client and even if they end up not purchasing, they might know our ideal clients. And when you treat them well and you give them the full experience, I'm not saying.

Heather (23:03)
Yes.

Yeah, right.

Nicole Begley (23:23)
like to give them free stuff by the full experience or to be like, ⁓ we talked about it they don't want to purchase anything extra, but let's, yeah, I'll drive three hours to the mountains and do this special thing for you. Like, no, okay. Not what I'm saying. ⁓ but to be able to just treat them with service from a service heart, they will be much more likely to have a great experience and still share with other people.

Heather (23:51)
Absolutely. And you know, this isn't like saying, I don't think people shouldn't explore this. Meaning if somebody thinks, I don't want to do the bait and switch. I think what they should maybe think about next. Well, first of all, give me a call. Let's talk about it. But is maybe like, well, wait, I'm not a criminal. So I understand.

Nicole Begley (24:11)
Yeah. And also

how, if you're feeling like anything's a bait and switch, I think the, the action question, action girl reporting for duty to ask is how can I best prepare my client for the transaction? Like what, what do I need to do to educate them? So it's not a bait and switch. So it's their decision.

Heather (24:24)
There you go, perfect.

So it's not amazing.

And I think that's a fair exploration. I would just make sure that you don't allow your brain to stay in this, know, you know, because if this is the case, if you're doing this, then you understand that your client is a victim and you're the villain. So it's worth looking at the thought, but I just, see it so often, Nicole, that I just think

Nicole Begley (24:33)
Yeah.

Heather (24:56)
the bait and switch is the killer of conversions. So it has to be explored and uncovered and looked at to where you say like, it's almost laughable. You're like, right, of course I'm not doing something illegal. I just want to make sure what you're actually saying is I want to make sure I'm communicating properly. And that's fair.

Nicole Begley (25:00)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. I think we should always be looking at our process, what we're teaching or talking to our client about the education process and ask, am I communicating, um, efficiently, like telling them what they need to know so that they're prepared? Is there a way I can communicate better? That's a fair question, but yeah.

Heather (25:33)
a fair question and let's

explore it but let's not call ourselves criminals.

Nicole Begley (25:38)
Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a fair question and you're approaching it from the place of, want to serve my clients better. You're not approaching it from the place of, I want to rip my clients off. Like if you are approaching it from that place, yeah, maybe you do have a bait and switch. Better business bureau, maybe consumer. Yeah. Protection. Yeah.

Heather (25:49)
gosh.

Maybe I need to call the, ⁓ I don't know who, who's in charge of being sort of, I don't know what to do if you're a victim, the FTC probably, Federal Trade Commission is who you would call. Yeah, I don't

think that's what's happening here. I think that, I think it would just serve you to examine it and then clean it up and come at it from a place of service and communication and genuine and it's respect. And I just,

I just wonder if that were the case, what would happen to your conversions? Now, I happen to know that you had great success with this and your conversions were really high. I also happen to know that our head coach inside of Elevate, Jessica Wasik has had incredible conversions with her approach to this as well. And that's because she also has clean thinking. She does not believe she's ripping anyone off. It's offering a service.

Nicole Begley (26:46)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I mean,

instead, could it be, man, these people are so lucky they got in for a deal.

Heather (26:53)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. What? mean, I used to think that when I was like, people hired weddings by Heather for $500 back in the day, you know, like they got such a deal. That was so incredible. That's a great way to look at it because that changes your, your feelings and then your actions and how you approach it will, which will definitely lead to better results.

Nicole Begley (26:55)
Like they are so lucky.

Yep. Well, this was a great conversation. Thank you.

Heather (27:20)
I love it.

It just came up so much recently, but now, now that I'm aware of it, I've just noticed it a lot over the years. People saying this and sometimes they're being funny and they're just saying it in passing, but I think, Oh, just, I'll just be really careful about what you're telling your brain.

Nicole Begley (27:29)
Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yeah, for sure. And really, again, my favorite thing to say too is, if you're not sure what you're thinking, like use your feelings as a barometer. If you're not feeling good about something, there's probably a thought that is not serving you. So, yeah. So use that as a, it's kind of a litmus test to be like, wait, there's something here I need to explore. So awesome. All right, Heather, thank you for ⁓ being here with us. We will see you guys next week.

Heather (27:53)
Yeah, always, always.

Yeah, good. Thank you.