Photography Pricing and Good Juju
It has taken me a few years to figure out that certain actions create bad juju for business and some create good juju. It has take a few trials and I am still learning, but for the most part I try to make choices that lead me to good juju.
Now as a quick disclaimer you will probably hear several different definitions of the word ‘juju’. If you look it up on Google, Wikipedia provides the following:
juju (countable and uncountable, plural jujus) (countable) A fetish or charm believed by West Africans to have magical or supernatural powers. (uncountable) The magical or supernatural power of such a charm. (informal) The (usually negative) karmic consequences of an action or behavior. That's some bad juju.
For me I simply look at juju as an energy flow and I try to focus my actions on ones that will create good juju, instead of bad.
Recently on social media I have seen posts from other creatives trying various approaches to justify why they charge so much. While first I would like to acknowledge that what people term as charging an arm and a leg can vary from one person to the next… I personally feel like I do not want to replicate the post for my business. It is a type of energy that I feel does not create the type of juju I want.
Creating Good Juju- Serving Clients
Not many people know this but I almost gave up photography about 10 years ago. I was not feeling satisfaction with my work and most of it felt flat… as I sure was the feeling of my clients walking away from those sessions. It was not rewarding at all.
Contrast that with just the other day and a client commented on one of her pictures I posted that this session had been the highlight of her life. Clients that I have come back to me because they loved the work I did. Or commenting that the session was a nice experience for them as a couple, the cues were an opportunity to express appreciation for each other and play. Other clients have also become close friends.
About the time when I considered giving up my photo business is when I met a photographer (virtually) by the name of Sue Bryce. What I took from her was to provide clients with an experience, to add value to the sesssion.
Now and forever I am continually looking for ways to provide value to clients. Whether that is surprising them with a birthday cake mid session, their favorite treat or song or dancing with them to their favorite song. A photo has become a story, an event, a triumph- and in some cases a legacy.
I took some of what Sue Bryce said to add value and brought in more ideas of my own. Yes, it adds to the session work but I am okay with that. My goal is to help a client feel cxomfortable in the camera, to feel their most confident and love the final product. I feel if I can help a client with a little bit of their confidence that might carry out into the rest of their life. Maybe next time they see a photo of themselves, they will not immediately resort to dislike of their image but rather have a new perspective.
Once I started providing value beyond the photograph good juju flows. One lesson I have learned is that money is exchanged equal to value. My photography, nor my way of going about it is for everyone. But for the people that it is for, that value is there. They recognize it. I recognize it. And together we create and expand the good juju.
It is not my place to judge and I wish you well.
One thing that has inevitably happened are some unfortunate experiences. Experiences where someone outright tells me no, sometimes followed by criticism. Other times where people tell me yes and then completely ghost me for whatever reason. And then other times where we make it all the way to end and that urge to request a discount or other statements leave probably both of us feeling deflated and turning the experience sour.
I have learned that I don’t control other people, I can only control what I do. I have also learned, having a situation that most people will never understand sometimes we just don’t know why people act the way they do- and I don’t have the energy to judge.
It still gets me sometimes in these situations, even for a minute- but it gets easier. Just the other day I had a person reach out to me indicating they wanted a headshot session and scheduled an appointment on my calendar. I called at the appointed time and they did not answer. I texted after saying I hoped everything was okay and they texted back saying sorry they were at lunch. This should have been my warning sign, and it usually is.
I let this person reschedule the appointment. The appointment happened and we agreed upon a date and next steps. I sent a follow up email and invoice for the session fee. Then nothing. I finally texted this person a few days later and they said that another photographer had offered them a free session.
Yes, there was a moment of frustration. Doesn’t this person know the time I spent crafting the email with next steps, on the phone with them, entering their information into the system? Luckily that is where I stopped here but there have been other clients I have gone much further on session prep only to have them back out.
But luckily I have learned. The voice in my head said let them go, wish them well and something else will come along. And come along it did. A previous client called for the same type of shoot less than a week later. I don’t know why this person ghosted me- twice. Perhaps this was also an experience they needed to have, I don’t know. But I quickly chose to redirect my energy towards happy business generating activities and it came back to me as it always does.
What I post on social media
First of all a disclaimer that I am no social media pro. But there was a time in my life where I wish people had opened up a bit more to help me through something. What I had gone through… and no one saying me too… left me feeling like the only idiot that could not figure out my situation. And it added to the issue.
I am not about sharing all the dirty laundry on social media… but I do appreciate when people share the real picture, rather than the perfectly curated one. I live in a situation that few will ever understand and I have experienced all the feels and more that come with it. In the middle of it all I have held down a job that was in many ways a lifeline for our family and worked on my self and my photography to build a business. I have been saying I want to be a photographer since I was 12 and it has taken me over 20 years to get serious about that dream. If I can help anyone with the self doubt, self image, confidence, overwhelm and everything else I have let stand in my way- that is what I want to share on social media.
I feel like my clients will be attracted to me for the value I provide. For who I am and what I give. I have no control over others money situations and if they feel I may charge too much or not- and that is fine, it is not my situation. But when I have a client and we can love on each other with good times in the studio, compensation, intermittent texts to check on one another when they are going through something, friendship… I could go on. That is what I am here for. Those clients saw something in me and I am so glad we found each other. To me that is what matters. The value I provide will be recognized- but not by me telling you to recognize it.