Steal This Profitable Session Idea

343 - I stumbled across a Facebook ad for a $200 branding session and almost scrolled past it. Instead, I booked it, showed up, and walked away completely rethinking how photographers can structure sessions for maximum profit. In this episode, Heather and I break down the model, the math, and why this idea has legs for pet, family, and portrait photographers.

What to Listen For 

• The Facebook ad that led to a business model breakthrough
• How one photographer makes thousands per hour with rotation shooting
• Why a $200 session doesn't undercut your $3,000 custom work
• The mini session pricing myth you need to stop believing
• How to structure product sales inside a lower-priced session
• The psychological trick that gives clients permission to buy more
• What to do when you see a competitor offering cheap sessions
• A prepayment subscription model for year-round portrait revenue
• Why the most successful photographers never dismiss an idea
• The nugget principle that changes how you approach new strategies

There are way more paths to your revenue goals than you think. If this episode sparked even one idea, run with it. Test it, tweak it, and see what version works for your business.

CONNECT + LEARN MORE:

Explore all things photography education at nicolebegleyedu.com

Ready to build a profitable photography business? Visit freedomfocusformula.com

Master the craft of pet photography at hairofthedogacademy.com

Follow along on Instagram - @nicolebegleyofficial 

Transcript

Nicole Begley (00:01)
I'm Nicole Begley, 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 (00:59)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Bagley, and joining me today is again the one, the only Heather Lautnan.

Heather (01:09)
Hi Nicole, thank you so much for having me.

Nicole Begley (01:12)
so excited you're here.

Heather (01:14)
being here. In fact

this is probably my favorite place to be if I'm honest.

Nicole Begley (01:17)
⁓

Except unless we were actually in person, not

Heather (01:21)
Yeah, that does

make the di but you know what? It's difficult to record both of us in person because of a microph yeah, so. Studio. Mm-hmm.

Nicole Begley (01:26)
Actually, it actually is. We need to like get a splitter and like multiple

microbes. That's a lot, it's a lot of things. Anyway. ⁓ all right. So today, today, today, today, I wanted to share something that I well, I found it on a Facebook ad. And it turned out to be awesome, and it really got me thinking, and I thought I would share the experience.

Heather (01:33)
Yeah. So this is good.

Nicole Begley (01:51)
So I was, gosh, when was this? This must have been in March earlier this year. I was just, you know, I had Facebook open for something, and there was an ad for branding photos locally here in Charlotte. it was like an hour. You would get 50 images plus like three kind of like B roll video things for like 200, $250.

And it was like and the the photos looked decent, the ones they were advertising with. I'm like, yeah, all right. Let's give it a whirl. Why not? I needed a couple, just you know, a couple new ones. let's let's let's test it out. So I did. Then I got there and I'm like, I could not help but be mesmerized at the beauty of how they created this business. So ⁓ the the business is called Femforce and

It Charlotte's a new city for them. So this was their way to start to get members into this membership. And so it was inviting this one time at the special rate. And the one woman that was there, there were two photographers there, and then a woman helped helping to organize everything. And I was chatting with her, and she is the owner. She used to be a wedding photographer in Phoenix. And then she had kids, and you know the drill. It's like, wait a minute, like.

What am I doing? I'm giving up every single weekend. And I, you know, it's it had its moment, but she was ready for a little bit more weekend flexibility. And so she had been doing some branding, some branding work, but she created this in Phoenix, and I think, I forget. I mean, I I think it was probably five or six years ago, maybe right around COVID, maybe right before COVID. and

It's basically a membership that you can go monthly or four times a year or by one off sessions. And they locate different places. So they move to different places all around the city. And you have this little session where you get about 50 images and a few, like they grab your phone and actually film some social media b roll for you. And it's just brilliant. And it just got me thinking that.

so many photographers get hung up on the right price and making sure that like it you know just that it's right and that it's like I don't know I've see so many people that think I can't offer something like this because it's devaluing my other things that I offer. And as someone that has invested several thousand dollars in a custom branding session and I will again

This is not to replace that. This is kind of like a supplement. so I ended up doing the the quarterly membership. It was like $850 for the year for four sessions, four more sessions. And I was like, this is a great supplement, but it doesn't negate my need for my branding photographer here in Charlotte that I love. And I will still hire her for a regular session. So I guess there's two things I want to talk about.

Number one being that we can create these custom custom packages that don't follow the quote rules of what the the gurus in the industry tell you that you need to do. And two, your great clients, even if you see them take advantage of something like this from somebody else, doesn't negate your services.

Heather (05:14)
Okay, both very good points. Let me ask you w it was you get fifty images from one shoot? Like five zero.

Nicole Begley (05:20)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yes. And they're just I mean, it's just Lightroom Global Edits, like nothing crazy fancy. But you know, if it's shot right in camera, it's it's it's good.

Heather (05:28)
Yeah.

Well, right. And if you wanted to edit it crazy fancy, you could. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (05:35)
Yeah, and I I did ask,

because I did ask her, I'm like, hey, what's the licensing agreement for these? And the contracts basically work for hire, so I have the copyright of them now. So I can do whatever I want. So so I did I did take my last set and I'm like, there is no black point in these images.

Heather (05:45)
okay. Well you can use them however you want. So okay

Yeah, you can make look how you want. Don't care.

Nicole Begley (05:55)
Yeah. Just so they can match

along for my website 'cause I do have everything, you know, properly blackpointed.

Heather (06:03)
Yeah,

well I mean you're a lady. Of course you do. Yeah. Okay, well I wanna I need I have questions. we need to back up to the ad itself. So the ad says what?

Nicole Begley (06:13)
Mm-hmm.

basically, hey, service providers, hey brand. I forget if like who specifically they called out entrepreneurs, but it was essentially a hey, here's this. Do you $200? I think it was like $199 for ⁓ a one-hour branding session, 50 images, three videos. It's like, yeah. So I mean they they led with just

Heather (06:24)
Right.

Nicole Begley (06:41)
what the deliverables of the offer were. I forget the exact warning. but here's the part with the session planning, profit planning piece. There are 8,000 ways to get to your desired profit plan. Like, like it yeah.

Heather (06:57)
Well, yeah, the reason I was

asking you about the ad was because I think that some of us as photographers would see that and we would have a thought that might be something like they're crazy. Who could do that? They're undercutting everything. They can't be making a profit. That's so little. I would fifty images, three videos for for that low of a price. I could never deliver that. And we get all caught up in our thoughts about why that.

Nicole Begley (07:09)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (07:24)
doesn't work or couldn't work for us and maybe they're whatever they're doing, but you you dug in a little bit more to the model and what did you find?

Nicole Begley (07:36)
It was brilliant. So they had two photographers for this particular one. And so there were six of us for each hour slot. Three photograph, three people for each photographer. And they would shoot. ⁓ Okay, sit, ⁓ stand, use your computer, doo-doo-doo-doo. Like you go through and you get a whole bunch of images in one scene and one outfit. ⁓ it's three outfits too. And then

Heather (07:56)
Yes. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (08:05)
You go change, but but it was brilliant. Then you go change and they photograph the next person, and they go change and they photograph the third person, and then you move to another location in the Airbnb, and then they do the same thing. So, like the photographer is just shooting for the hour. Yeah. And then we have just like, okay, we shoot for a few minutes, we go change, we shoot for a few minutes, we go change, and we go home. Like it was so easy. And then when you do the math.

Heather (08:06)
shut.

Yeah, they just have it down. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (08:35)
of well, let's just say three people, 'cause I think the most they'll do is four.

One photographer, four clients. I mean, if it's $250, that's $1,000 in an hour. If you're doing a couple of those during the day, that's several thousand dollars. And yeah, you might have to rent Airbnb, but this wasn't just a normal house. It was probably like a $250 a day rental.

Heather (09:03)
Right, right.

Nicole Begley (09:04)
Like it was it was nothing fancy, it was just modern inside with some nice nice places to shoot.

Heather (09:10)
So they could make thousands of dollars in one day for not a lot of effort or time in the edit in the post, right? How fa how quickly did they get these images to you? Yeah. Yep. They just ran through. Yep. Done.

Nicole Begley (09:16)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

Three days.

Just deliver it in gallery. Download, go.

So, I mean, this has gotten me thinking so many times. I'm like, okay, obviously for branding photographers, what a great service to be able to add on. And it is very different than a custom session. A custom session, we are going to specific places. We are shooting for specific things. We like it, you're getting more. It's it's just a whole different aspect.

Heather (09:45)
Yes.

Nicole Begley (09:56)
And it's not even about the deliverables because I'm thinking back my custom branding sessions, my deliverables were about that, maybe a little bit more, maybe about 70 images. But the the planning was more custom. And and it was just me. And and there's still a space for that.

Heather (10:09)
⁓ right. Yes.

Yeah, of course.

Nicole Begley (10:25)
type of session. I mean, think if you're a family photographer, those toddlers need a break. If you're a pet photographer, the dogs need a break. Like if you are horse and equine photographer, like several people get together and and instead of, I think the old way that we all were like taught to do mini sessions, then again, mini session can be your internal what your internal language is. You advertise it as something else because I feel like that just feels cheap. ⁓ but

Heather (10:32)
Yes.

Yeah.

Nicole Begley (10:53)
Like instead of saying, okay, somebody's gonna get the crappy light at 4 p.m., somebody's gonna get the better light at 445, and then somebody's gonna get the really nice light at 530. Like, why not just have three people that everybody shoots, you find one scene, you shoot everybody there. You find another scene, you shoot everybody there. You find a third or fourth scene, you shoot everybody there, everybody goes home. It's at a way lower price point. And

Again, it doesn't have to be like, don't mishear me. It's not at a way lower price point because like it's not valuable or you have to compete on price. I'm just saying the math allows you to offer something like this at a price point that becomes a way easier yes for people that have been considering working with you, but they're not ready to pull the trigger on a $3,000 purchase.

Heather (11:41)
Yes.

Perfect. And also you can make three thousand dollars in an afternoon doing that. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (11:50)
Exactly. Yes. And the map allows you

to still make what you would make at a custom session, but now just with three s families. And depending how you set that up, you could make more if they're all purchasing artwork.

Heather (12:05)
Wow. Okay. You know, something you just said I had not considered, which is ⁓ I've had photographer friends actually use my property in order to do mini sessions, like say for holiday photos. And they would have clients every 15 minutes that just or 30 minutes, whatever, that came and they would put them in the position. And my friend Susie in particular had three setups, but what she was doing was one client was going boom, boom, boom.

Nicole Begley (12:15)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Yes. And then they go. Yep.

Heather (12:32)
And

then they go. And that was always the traditional model. And she still made thousands of dollars on those days. I mean, she was she wasn't gonna do it for less than that. She's very profitable. But this actually makes so much more sense from an efficiency standpoint to have those three setups and then have three or four families like lined up essentially. But here's the thing: you have to know what and how you are executing to be as efficient as possible.

Nicole Begley (12:46)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (13:02)
So it's not like, let's try over here and see how this looks. It's like this is the spot. This is the exact pose. You know, if you've ever watched sports photographers like at the high school level do this, it takes them no time at all to wrangle like 15 teenagers, which is miraculous. But they know exactly where they're going to place them, what how to tell them where to stand, what to do, and then boom, they shoot it and it's done. So if you have all of that sort of ready to go.

Nicole Begley (13:06)
yeah, no. Yeah, you need a plan.

Heather (13:31)
Then you could execute the this actually makes me want to try it.

Nicole Begley (13:38)
I feel like it could be really, really, really freaking profitable.

Heather (13:41)
I mean, I'm so serious, Nicole. I'm thinking maybe I could set that. So a couple of days ago, I did 11 seniors, nine on one day and then two the next. But so nine seniors I photographed on one day in their cap and gowns, you know, for graduation. And I was a machine. They were all present. They were all here. I had a spot, found the good light, had a series of poses that I told them to execute on, and it was like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Nicole Begley (14:04)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (14:11)
I should have I should have looked at the time. I

Nicole Begley (14:15)
That's what did for I volunteered to do homecoming pictures and prom pictures as the photographer mom. Like we all end up doing that. And ⁓ Heather, like, I don't mess around. I was channeling my inner wedding wedding heather. Like it was raining. And so they were doing this restaurant right on the lake, and there's just like this little overhang area. And I'm like, ⁓ we're not wasting time. Get that big white chair, bring it over here. You sit down, you stand there. Like, I I

Heather (14:21)
Right. Yep.

No. Yeah, yeah. Right.

Nicole Begley (14:43)
Actually, kind of love it. It's an awesome photo. And then the rain stopped, and we went down by the lake, and I'm like, all right, you two, you two. And then we just like, okay, next group, next group, next group. You just you just go through it. And ⁓ yeah, and like the the adding on of products, like the branding, a branding session, the deliverables are pretty much always digital files, right? Because that's it's marketing, it's like like quasi-commercial type stuff.

Heather (14:44)
No, it's fun.

Nicole Begley (15:12)
But if you're doing this for portrait clients, yeah, you can include a couple digitals. You could include just a product credit. You could you could set it up in so many different ways. You can include a couple digitals. And then if they order an art piece, they get 10 bonus digitals. They're essentially getting a free art piece if you message it right. Like

Heather (15:31)
Yes. Yes.

⁓ there are probably one million and fifty five hundred thousand ways to do this in order to hit your revenue goals or your for me it's a it's a time revenue goal situation. There have been times where I would have said, ⁓ I'll do an IPS for each one of those and and you know and get these to multiple thousand dollar sales.

Nicole Begley (15:36)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Uh-huh.

Heather (15:56)
But there have also been times where I would rather set a really high upfront price and you get all of the digitals, like like a family instead of a $200 mini session, I would do, I kid you not, a $1,200 mini session. $1,200. But you get all of the files. So like that's that's I think that's a really great deal.

Nicole Begley (16:11)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓

Heather (16:17)
But imagine

if I did, let's say a thousand for easy math. If I did five families, I've just made $5,000 in an afternoon. And they could certainly purchase more because you could set up the gallery to auto-fulfill, but you could make that money, happy clients, you know, images everywhere. So part of it is also marketing. And then you get referrals from that. No, listen, this absolutely has legs.

Nicole Begley (16:42)
Yeah. And if you want to go over your specific pricing, you come to my call if you are an elevate or freedom focus. Okay. Like, let's figure it out. ⁓ yeah.

Heather (16:49)
Okay, I will be there. Yeah, let's do it. I know things

like this, I get really excited because it gives you the opportunity to experiment. And I like the idea of thinking in my head, how much money could I make in one afternoon? You know, obviously I have to add it, but I'm I'm a ninja and so I that's like nothing at all to me. I enjoy it and I'm fast. But in my mind, I'm like, how much money could I make in an afternoon? ⁓ five thousand dollars.

Nicole Begley (16:59)
Mm.

Heather (17:19)
Girl, sign me up every weekend. Okay, not quite. But I would I would do that often. I mean, my goodness. And again, you have the photos for your portfolio as well as the marketing and referrals. I mean, why would you not try something like this? I think it's great.

Nicole Begley (17:36)
Yeah, amazing. So the other elephant in the room that we need to talk about though is when somebody when you see somebody doing this in your market in the

The thought spiral. Mm-hmm.

Heather (17:48)
You have thoughts about it.

Right. Well, just like you would see somebody might see the same ad that you saw and have a thought spiral about it.

Nicole Begley (17:56)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Which I mean, again, I think just goes to stay in your lane. Like figure out what your offer is. And even in pet photography, I've had clients that have hired numerous pet photographers, certainly family photographers, maybe not high school senior photographers, but ⁓

Heather (17:59)
Yeah.

For sure. Yes. Yes.

Nicole Begley (18:18)
Maybe not wedding photographers. But but they, you know, they they might hire additional people. And like I said, from this particular one, like there is still a place where I will hire my like actual private branding photographer, because she's amazing and it offers something different.

Heather (18:33)
Yes, of course. Mm-hmm.

So what are you thinking the thoughts would be, ⁓ because there are a couple different avenues here, but s a photographer sees that ad or sees someone in their town doing something similar, what are they thinking?

Nicole Begley (18:49)
I think the biggest one is that they allow the fact that somebody is offering something like that at that price to be the excuse of why they are not booking because it's their price. And obviously that's the price that it needs to be for people to book. And no one's booking me just because of my price.

Heather (19:02)
⁓ right.

Yeah, so it's like it's an affirmation. It's like, see, I told you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That it just like it just confirms. It gives them evidence to prove this is why people aren't booking them because they charge thousands. Their collections are into thousands. This person is putting that out for 200. They can never compete with that. And it just gets like you said, the spiral of thoughts that

Nicole Begley (19:11)
Mm-hmm. It's a bad affirmation.

Mm-hmm.

Heather (19:35)
are not necessarily true because somebody might like you, somebody like you might hire this person at two hundred dollars and then might turn around. What did you pay for that branding session a few years ago?

Nicole Begley (19:45)
Gosh,

it was a while ago. I think it was about two thousand dollars. Now it's about three. Mm-hmm.

Heather (19:48)
Yeah, thousands. Yeah.

Right. That you could that that's still a possibility. So just because someone books a $200 mini session does not mean they're never going to book a full session with you or anyone else. I think that we see this as being very black or white. It's like either people go for this cheap one or people go for the value of what I offer. And it's it's just a lot more nuanced than that.

Nicole Begley (20:13)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's also an important distinction too, especially for the people that are doing family photography, pet photography that are more product based, that again, we're offering a very different product. And I think you can still bring that in to these these types of sessions. I've actually always had this idea of I mean, there's no shortage of ideas here, Heather.

Heather (20:42)
No, I know, I know.

Nicole Begley (20:43)
But I've always had two of these different ideas. If you guys want to talk about it and test it out on our next pricing call, please let's do it. but number one is having like an artwork mini session, kind of like this, where it's like, hey, we're creating this scene, this dog at the lake, like, or here, this like city backdrop. Like, this is the artwork piece we're creating. And then I have four or five dogs come.

In a more traditional probably piece of that, like 20 minutes per. and and we create that one art piece. But I actually kind of like this better because then they can choose from like, all right, we move around to these different areas. and it could include even include an art piece. the other one that I love too. Yep.

Heather (21:16)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Well, hold on. How would you

structure that f pricing of that?

Nicole Begley (21:36)
different ways. I think I would I would probably to make it in line with my normal sessions, my normal sessions $500 session fee. It becomes a product credit when they do a collection or if they order 20 by 30 or larger RPs or an album. But I I don't to keep it clean, I just say that and if they're like, I want an album instead, yeah sure. but so I would do maybe

$200 session fee that becomes a product credit when they do an art piece or a collection. So it would be the same offer. Like maybe I would change it a little bit more. Maybe they'd get a little bit more credit. I don't know. I'd have to play around with it a little bit. But here's here's the biggest mini session myth out there. And that is you need to lower the prices of your products for a mini session. That is

Heather (22:04)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Same? ⁓

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, no, no.

Nicole Begley (22:32)
BS. Absolutely not. Keep your your products are the same price. Can you have a special product that's not available in your full sessions? Absolutely. Absolutely. Can you have you know, you can have those different things, but there's no reason that it's like, it's a mini session. So my artwork's 20% off. No. No. Yeah.

Heather (22:41)
Sure. Yeah.

No, that is a myth. That's like a tubacabra

or a yeti. It just I don't know that it really exists.

Nicole Begley (23:00)
Yeah, yeah. So so don't discount your products. instead, I mean, honestly, it would just be I would make it as a lower upfront cost to get in front of my camera. And it would still have like I am a big stickler, and there always needs to be some sort of bonus, some sort of carrot, some sort of value add that gets clients to give them the permission.

Heather (23:24)
yeah.

Nicole Begley (23:25)
To purchase what you want them to purchase and what they really want to purchase. But it takes them out of the, ⁓ I really want that piece of art. But like, I, you know, the economy and I've got a car payment coming up, and I'm my daughter's going to college and this and that. And I should really be responsible. So I'm just gonna do this. Even though I want these three things, I'll just do this one thing. But when you're like, hey, when you do these three things, you get this thing, like,

Heather (23:28)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Nicole Begley (23:52)
Well, I want those things anyway, and that really is a good value. So, like, yeah, let's do it. Let's splurge and do it. And they feel good about it. It's just a little psychological shift that goes from I should be responsible because all of this photography is a luxury purchase. Like, no one's going to die without photos of their dog or photos of their family. Yes, they're very important. Yes, they're very valuable valuable, but it's not like one of our main needs to survive.

Heather (23:54)
So might as well. Right.

Right.

Nicole Begley (24:21)
It's

not a roof over our head. so it is always approached the psychological aspect of the client is it's always approached as this is a splurge. I'm ⁓ treating myself, I should be responsible. Like, let me walk it back a little bit. But when you add that value add, that bonus schedule that, hey, when you do this and this, you're gonna get this. Then it allows them to be like,

really do want those. And if I did it without those, then it's not that much more. And I really want those. And it's it's a good value. So yeah, let's do that. And they feel good about it. So it's not about tricking. It's not about tricking them. Say it again. It's not about tricking. It's literally just about like opening up the path of like, hey, the path of least resistance that also allows them to feel good about that purchase.

Heather (24:58)
Yes, yes.

No tricking. Mm mm.

Nicole Begley (25:14)
And we know that that purchase, they feel good about it in the moment and they continue to feel wonderful about it and better and better as the years pass.

Heather (25:20)
Yes, yeah. So they're thankful that they they're actually happy that they spent that much money. Yes, agreed. Yes.

Nicole Begley (25:26)
Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. So anyway, those are my lessons from this experience.

Heather (25:35)
No, I was actually super impressed by this and curious and a wee bit jealous because I'm like, where are these people in Pittsburgh? I would absolutely do that.

Nicole Begley (25:43)
⁓

You come on down to Charlotte. When you come down, we should do one, you and I together. Yeah.

Heather (25:48)
We need to we've we've been saying we need photos together

for things like this. So yeah, definitely we need to like did they wait, question did

Nicole Begley (25:57)
The

next Elevate Live. It's every other Tuesday morning. Different locations all around the city. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Heather (26:02)
Okay, okay, yeah, that was my question. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. No, that's brilliant.

Nicole Begley (26:07)
They had one at

the plant house, which I almost did. I was like, and this is also really smart. You go to the website, you see all the different things and you're like, well, I wanna do one there. I wanna I wanna do one there. so it's you know, ver variety of places.

Heather (26:18)
Yeah.

How many

I know you wouldn't know this, but I'm just curious your thoughts. How how many members do you think they have, like in Charlotte?

Nicole Begley (26:29)
I'm unsure in Charlotte because it's brand new, but this is their 13th city, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And it's been going on for several years. the other the other idea that I had too, that ⁓ again, you guys, there are so many ways to structure our business. And that is a way, it's a different instead of a payment plan that's post

Heather (26:31)
Yeah.

So it clearly works.

Mm-hmm.

Nicole Begley (26:57)
You doing the work, it's almost like a prepayment plan. So, like for it could be family photography, it could be dog photography, it could be dog of the year type thing where it's hey, we spend, say it's a five thousand dollar sale, it's four hundred dollars a month, four whatever it ends up being. Let's say it's six thousand dollars, six thousand dollar purchase, but you just charge five hundred dollars a month for twelve months.

Heather (27:22)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole Begley (27:22)
And

then at the end, everything gets delivered. And along the lines, if you have something like this, they could do a monthly session, a quarterly session, whatever it looks like, they pick and choose these little things. Or if you don't do something like this, it could just be, hey, you get three sessions throughout the year. Do you want to do one at the lake? Do you want to do one in the fall? Do you want to do one in the snow? Like choose it out and you you create this like year of the dog.

⁓ or it could be family, like a year of our family throughout the year. And then you create an album and includes an album at the end. It includes an art piece, includes some digital files. Done. They can add on some more if they want, but it's just like six thousand dollars. You know exactly what you're doing, you go out and you shoot it, and at the end of the year you make the delivery.

Heather (27:53)
Uh-huh.

I love this. And you know what else? As you were explaining this, you always have so many different ideas and ways to make things work. And I gave an impassioned speech in Elevate, I think it was a few weeks ago, where I said, if you hear us give you a handful of ideas on something, I want you to just watch your brain when it's like, nope, that won't work for me. Nope, that won't work. She doesn't understand my market.

Nicole Begley (28:38)
yeah.

Heather (28:40)
I'm already too busy. This is what does work. They don't get it. That you know, I just want you to watch. There are people listening right now, their brains are doing this. They're shutting it all down. Every, every way that you've just suggested over this entire podcast, there are people saying, Well, no, that doesn't work for me. That doesn't work for me. And the people that I've seen that are really successful in photography never ever dismiss an idea. They look at it and they say, okay, what version of this could

Nicole Begley (28:47)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (29:09)
potentially work for me. And then they adapt, they experiment, and they take action. And that's not to say that every idea works, but I believe that there is some adaptation here for everyone. That's what I'm getting at.

Nicole Begley (29:24)
Yeah. I and this is also I think an area where you start to see the the people that are going to have an easier path to success because they're approaching it with this mindset. And this is how I always was. I don't know if you ever went. Did you ever go to there was back in Pittsburgh, it was a triangle of photographers, it was like a little affiliate of PPA. and it was

A lot of more old school photographers, and they would have people, and it was like right in cranberry, so it was like five minutes from my house. I'm like, Yeah, I'll go. And ⁓ they would have these speakers that you would look at their portfolio and be like, I am not interested in that at all. That is not my jam. But I would still go and there would be a nugget. I'd be like, What nugget? I am open to any little nuggets. And I'm like, huh, I do like that. I will take that little nugget. So

Heather (30:11)
Yes.

Nicole Begley (30:19)
There are nuggets of ideas everywhere, even when you're like, mm, that doesn't apply to me. Okay, but is there anything there that might?

Heather (30:28)
Maybe you just need to pick up the nugget, polish it a little bit, and turn it at a different angle.

Nicole Begley (30:34)
Yeah, yeah. Or even pick up the nugget, put it on the shelf, and three years later you're like, Well, wait a minute. This all comes together now. We have had so many, so many conversations about like the evolution. We've been doing this online education thing for 10 years. So much evolution of like, my gosh, ups and downs and twists and turns and testing different things and figuring out.

Heather (30:39)
Yeah, yeah.

Nicole Begley (31:01)
where our like where we can best serve our clients, where our passion is, how these all come together. And it is often not until you have tested so many of these paths that you're like, ⁓ I see it now. Uh-huh. Yeah. Or and and just like where that path leads. And so anyway, that's that's my soapbox.

Heather (31:17)
Right, I see what works. Yes.

It takes a lot of experimentation, but in

order to get to the experimentation phase, you really need to have an open mind that there are different possibilities or ways here that you can adapt that maybe what you're suggesting does not directly relate to someone, but it might spark an idea. Jessica Wasick is really good at this. She just took my recent course book clients this week. And just for the record, Jess is 200K in revenue. The course is $27.

And she was one of the first people to dive in and watch it. And I just want you to think about what that says about her. That there is no planet on which Jess says, I have this all figured out, but technically she kind of does. Because she knows how to get clients, right? So she watches this qu first video of the course and within minutes calls me and says, I just got the most brilliant idea. I'm gonna go do this thing. It wasn't it wasn't exactly the idea that I shared.

But it spawned something and then she went and took action on it. And that's what she's been doing for a decade. And that's why she's at the point where she's at, because she does not take anything off the table it until she like looks at it from different angles and maybe tries her version of it.

Nicole Begley (32:36)
Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. my gosh. All right. Well, hopefully you guys got some ideas here. If not, re-listen to the last five minutes. But thanks for ⁓ for being here, Heather. Thank you for chatting ⁓ about this with me. And ⁓ we'll see you guys next week.

Heather (32:38)
Incredible.