← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
How to Get Your Friends & Family to Choose You as Their Photographer
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Welcome to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast. You can stop spending hours on Google and YouTube because you just found your number one resource for growing a profitable and sustainable photography business. Hi, I'm Brooke Jefferson. I'm a believer wife, mama to two and Oklahoma family photographer. I left the classroom in 2018 to pursue my photography career full time. Now I'm here to help you do the same. In this podcast we're covering the most asked about topics including pricing, marketing, client experience, and all things systems and workflows. You won't find any fluff or BS here. Just tried and true strategy. Are you ready? Grab your kids some snacks and charge those camera batteries. It's time to jump in. I'm excited for today's conversation because this is a listener requested topic. It is one that I think you will find relatable and one that I hope gives you a lot of encouragement in your photography business as well. So she sent in, she said, how do I get my friends and family to choose me as their photographer? I'm a middle of the road photographer price wise, which means I'm not the cheapest and I'm not the most expensive in my town. My trouble is, even after talking to someone that I've known for years and I've showed them my value in my process, I still don't get the booking. I can't give sessions away obviously because I want to be a profitable photographer. So what do I do? Thank you so much for sending this question in. And again, I am just shocked that I haven't recorded an episode on this topic in the last seven years I've had this podcast because this is such a, such a common thing that happens. I will tell you the majority of the time your friends and family won't choose you as their photographer. And I know that that stings to even hear me say that, but unfortunately it's the truth. And I want to give you an example of I have a lot of examples of this in my own life of personal stories, but I want to just give you an example in another industry. So back in the day I did network marketing and you know, usually your first or second customer is a friend or a family member, but then once they get over the newness of something, they don't really continue to support you. A lot of times they are the naysayer in your circle and they can sometimes even discourage you from wanting to continue on with network marketing or photography or whatever it is that you're trying to do. And so I can tell you from personal experience that you know, where I made my money and who my customers were, always people outside of my friends and family. And it is the same way in photography still to this day. Now, am I so blessed that a few years into my photography business, when I really felt like I was established and I had consistency and cohesiveness with my editing and all the things, I'm so blessed that I did have a few friends that still continue to. Every single year and every single baby they have, they come back to me, they hire me, they pay me full price. So I'm very thankful for that. But what I want to encourage you with is that this isn't a circle that I think you need to focus on. I want you to be more focused on marketing yourself to people that are not in your super close, warm circle of family and friends and coworkers. That is a great starting point and I believe we all should start there, especially when we're building up our portfolios. But would I say that your friends and family are your ideal client? 9 out of 10 times the answer is no. And so I want this to encourage you, not to discourage you, but I want to encourage you that you are not alone in this. Don't put all of your energy and effort into getting your friends and family to pay you full price for what you do. Instead, go out and go find your people. Go find the people that you don't have to twist their arm and convince them that you are worth every dollar you're asking for. Go into circles of people that value what you do. That is really where you are going to find the most satisfaction and the most profit for your business. So I know that that is a catch 22. It's probably not what you thought I was going to say, but that is how I wanted to kick off this conversation. I am going to keep this episode short and sweet because I just, I really want you to keep this in the back of your mind as you move forward in your business, but focus on people outside of your friends and family to book you for your photography sessions. I promise you'll be so much more fulfilled if you go this route. The second thing that I want to say about our friends and family and people that know us better than other people, I would say they truly most of them, I'm not going to say everyone, but most of these people, they want what's best for you. And so they're going to try to keep you comfortable and keep you playing small. And they're just going to keep you safe. They don't want you to take risks, they don't want you to raise your prices, they don't want you to be the most expensive in your area. They can't see past keeping you comfortable and keeping you safe. This is very true if you have a spouse that is concerned or isn't really buying into your dream of what you want for your photography business. This can be true for a best friend, this can be true for a parent of yours. They just want what's best for you and they may not be a risk taker themselves. And so when they see you trying to market your photography business or trying to charge hundreds of dollars for what you do, they're not understanding the value of that. They are just trying to keep you from, you know, taking bigger risks, embarrassing yourself, failing, all of those things. And so while they do this from a very intentional place, it doesn't feel very good to us. And so again, this is why it can take your friends and family way longer to see the value and see the professionalism in your photography business. I know this from experience, okay? My mom even asked me, what do you charge? I have a co worker that's looking for such and such and she probably texts me about a photography opportunity two to three times a year. So she's trying to refer people to me and it just cracks me up because every time I will send her a copy of the investment guide or I will just tell her, hey, that's going to be approximately, you know, X amount of dollars for what they're asking for. She always tells me that I'm too expensive and that she's going to help them find someone cheaper. Now she's not saying that because she doesn't think that my photography is, isn't worth it or that she doesn't believe in me. It's just that the people that she's hanging out with or the people that her, you know are her coworkers, they're not my ideal client. So they're trying to find a photographer that they can give, you know, $200 to or less and get this high quality gallery. And so it never hurts my feelings. It did at the beginning, but it doesn't hurt my feelings anymore. In fact, now I really just kind of laugh and I don't really use my mom as a referral source and so I love her so much. But I, I tell you this because I want you to see like you are not alone in this. Your friends and family probably aren't going to get on the bandwagon for you, at least in the first few years that you're doing your photography business, really, if ever. And so, yes, I get it, it's not a nice thing to say. But I will tell you, I have some other family members and some really good friends of mine, like I've already said that do choose to use me for everything and they do pay me full price. The only person that I usually give a discount to, and I am not a big discounter, I don't, I don't do discounts. But the only person that I will discount or I have in the past is one of my sisters. That's it. She's the only one. Everybody else has paid me for wedding photography, for their, for their newborn sessions, for their family pictures. And so I say all of this to say that yeah, you can make money from your friends and family. I just don't want you to put so much energy and effort into this. One other thing that I want to say is sometimes going back to the people that know us and love us and they try to have the best intentions. A lot of times they just want to see if you're going to stick with it. And this could even be someone that doesn't know you very well. You might be in your first couple of years or even your first couple of months in your photography business and a lot of people are going to sit back and they're going to watch what you do, they're going to see if you get going. When it gets tough, are you going to stick through it and fight your way through the lower periods and slower periods of your business? Are you going to be around a year from now? Some people will literally watch to see if you fail. And I know that sounds very negative, but that's how you build trust with people. I've been doing this, we are almost at 12 years that I've had a photography business and I am still getting brand new clients every single year. People that I have known and that I've sat there on the sidelines and watched me for 11 years before they decide to invest their hard earned dollars with me. So trust takes a long time. And for the people that know you and love you and have their best, what they think is that your best intentions at heart, it just takes them a lot longer to get on board and see the value and see you as a professional and not just as a sister, a best friend, a daughter, etc. Okay, so that's it, that is the whole conversation. I want you to know that yes, you can get friends and family to book you, but you should not be twisting anybody's arm. I would rather you go, and I would rather you put more effort, more energy, more marketing strategy into your ideal clients rather than the people that you're trying to just get on board because you know them. I hope you were encouraged. Truly. That's all I want you to walk away from this episode with, is to be encouraged. I don't even have an action item for you. I just want you to say, okay, I get it. Yes, I hear you, Brooke. And I am going to start focusing on. On other people outside of my friends and family. Keep going. You've got this. I'm cheering you on. And I will see you on the next episode.