227: Staying the Course with Briana Tresko

that . I ended up retiring that just because it was a lot of extra work that I couldn't manage . But I got an email recently From a student of mine who was struggling with something that I have heard so many of you struggling with .

That I invited her to kind of come on for a one time mini mentoring reprise where we just went through and did kind of a coaching call but recorded for the podcast and the problem that she reached out with in a nutshell and you'll hear more about this after the intro music is that she's that she has .

You know she recently increased her prices , so there is that factor to it . But really this has just been a slow year . Even though she has her prices prominently displayed on her website , she was getting a lot of pricing pushback and and people contacting her and ultimately saying sorry , it just doesn't fit our budget .

And so , you know , she wrote in to say what am I doing wrong , what should I be doing instead ? And hopefully in this you know 20 or 25 minute episode , we've got through some good action steps that she can focus on right away . But this is a bigger conversation because it is .

It is certainly an issue that I think a lot of photographers have felt really acutely this year and I am absolutely in no way thinking that like there is a bandaid to solve everyone's problem . But in addition to today's episode , I want to point out that we are hosting a week long workshop basically dedicated exactly to this topic .

It's been a tough year for a lot of photographers , so we created this workshop called the five day business plan glow up , where we are going to go through and kind of Marie condo your business . It is a paid workshop , but it is low cost .

It's only $20 and you are invited to join and basically go through these five days of lessons and worksheets and my goal for you is that at the end of the five days , you come out with an action plan for this busy season , because I really do think that the tide is starting to turn and that we are going to start getting more inquiries and more people who

are ready to book . But if you're not ready for that influx and if you are not sort of in the right mind frame headspace to receive that , I think that it you know , it may be that it doesn't turn around quite as quickly or as easily for you .

So if you listen to today's episode and it resonates for you and you'd like to join the workshop that is happening September 11th to 15th and you can go grab a ticket at this , can't be that hard . Dot com slash glow . Welcome to this . Can't be that hard . My name is Anami Tonkin and I help photographers run profitable , sustainable businesses that they love .

Each week on the podcast , I cover simple , actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way . Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard . You can do it and I can show you how . Brianna Tresco , welcome to this . Can't be that hard .

I'm so excited to have you on the show and I really want to reiterate how grateful I am that you are welcome or that you were open to having this conversation with a broader audience listening in , because I feel like it can be a little bit hard , or I don't want to say embarrassing , but there's a vulnerability to putting out there like , hey , things aren't

100% exactly like I want them to be in my business . So I appreciate you being willing to have this conversation , because this is what I am hearing over and over and over again right now . Um , and so you know , I could just do a monologue about it , but I think having that dialogue is a lot more helpful for people .

So , um , before we dive in , I would love to have you introduce yourself , let everybody know , kind of , who you are , and then just kind of give me a synopsis of what you originally , uh , emailed me about .

Um , I started in California and so when I moved my business to Washington , uh , about five years ago , I was also pregnant . I kind of , admittedly , did put my business on the back burner for a while .

I just , you know , I have two girls now and , um , but I was still shooting through all of that and I admittedly was very like I'll look at the market around me and see what other photographers are charging and I'll , just , you know , put my prices somewhere

in there .

A lot changed for me last year and at the end of it I was like , wow , I barely made anything and I put a ton of effort into it , yeah . And so I knew that something had to give , and so at the beginning of this year , I decided to go for the simple sale system and , um , I did the course and I also did revenue on repeat with the art course too .

Yeah , and I launched both of those in March and I was really excited .

Um , I was like , okay , this is going to be like the turning point , and so far it's just been a lot of growing pains , trying to get out of a market that I was like pretty much half of the price what I was like last year , yeah , and trying to move into , um , just higher end clients , I guess , or just higher paying clients , rather , and so , yeah , I'm

just trying to figure out , like , if there's something wrong in my marketing or if there's something wrong in my messaging . That is kind of bringing me either lower leads or just lower quality leads in general , just because they're like oh , you're out of our budget , you're out of our budget , you're out of our budget .

So , yeah , I I mean , I know there's not a magic wand that can be waved , but I'm hoping that I can get some more tips or resources or you know something to steer me in the right direction .

You , um , are in a new to you area from where you were before , sounds like you've been actively marketing in the Seattle area for a relatively short period of time , and then we also experienced sort of a I'm going to go ahead and say worldwide , but like certainly a national slow down in the photography industry .

I feel like this year , the , especially at the beginning of the year , the economic forecast was pretty grim and I think that a lot of people were looking at their luxury spending and they're sort of non essential spending and putting it not necessarily cutting it from the budget , but just putting a pin in it for a period of time being like , yeah , we don't

need that right now , let's see where the chips end up . And so all of those things happening at the same time , you know I any one of those things would lead to a slow down , would lead to a potential for you to feel like what am I doing wrong ? And then all of those things is just like it magnifies that effect .

I was just this morning giving a talk to a group and one of the questions was about pricing and when you increase your pricing and whether you should do that in stages or all at once . And I have long been a supporter of just like tear off the bandaid , run your numbers , this is what you need to charge .

And I shared with that group like I haven't really significantly changed my pricing and it's been six or seven years . But the only way that that was possible was because I , when I set my prices six or seven years ago , I there was plenty of padding built in .

Like I haven't had to adjust every year because you know if my rent on my office space goes up by 3% , that's still within the budget . So so I think that you did the right thing by just making it all happen One big change .

But On the flip side , there is usually at least a six month kind of window after that where you have to be emotionally and financially ready for the fact that there is almost always going to be a big slowdown , and so hopefully you are getting toward the end of that for you . I also think that the news is good out there in the world .

I have a sneaking suspicion that this holiday season is going to be extra busy for a lot of people , because I think that a lot of those people who kind of put a pin in any photo plans are like okay , great , I feel better .

now the stock market is looking a little better and the holidays are coming up , so we want our photos now , and so I'm hopeful that this is actually going to be a really good time of year for a lot of us and maybe make up some of the difference there . But there are some things that I think , in the meantime , are worth exploring .

One of the things that caught my eye when you initially emailed me was I'm getting a lot of pushback about , oh , that's not in our budget , which is frustrating because my prices are pretty clear on my way . I think that my prices are pretty clear on my website . That's not to say that people aren't peaking at the prices on your website and I looked at them .

I'm looking at them right now . They are very clear . I think that there's a lot of room for confusion to me . So you've got packages as your title on your website and it talks about you have a session fee , and then you've got these collections and it spells out in each collection what is included in terms of digital files , print credit , etc .

I would invite you to consider scaling back what you're putting on here . I know it seems like if your thought is well , I have my pricing on my website and they're still telling me you know it's out of budget after I get them on the phone , it would seem counterintuitive to then take some of that information away .

But I think that if you replace what you have here with a shorter sentence , that just gives them kind of their minimum spend . So session fee is $2.75 and my minimum collection is $800 . They won't know what's included and they , you know , if they're interested in working with you , they're going to still be motivated to reach out , but they may not end up .

I worry that what's happening is that they are misinterpreting what you're saying , or you know that they're , because almost everyone is going to click on the pricing page before they reach out . But I just wonder if it's like too much information and therefore they're kind of like getting lost in it and they're just like yeah they could be just skimming it .

I think that it's good to give people options and it's good to have sort of you know , a way to upsell and all you know for all the different reasons I think it's good to have more complicated pricing structure . The trick is that when you're communicating that , you know you don't want to .

You don't want someone to either get confused and then not contact you or to get kind of in the weeds and misinterpret . You know they have there's too much information and they're misinterpreting it , so that then when you do explain what it is , then they're like oh , that's not what I thought .

So I feel like a very simple like if you can work it into two sentences , which you should be able to , then I think that you may just have a more open-minded pre-qualified , like they will have seen the prices . And then the other thing to remember is that when someone says , well , that's out of our budget .

It doesn't always mean that that's what , exactly what it was , especially since you have so much pricing on your information . So are you getting any people ? Use that , because it's an easy thing to just sort of like . It's not you , it's me . Bye , you know , and that's fine , but are you getting any further information ?

Or , and you said you are getting people on the phone- yes , I am Actually .

And then another yeah , mostly if I'm hearing hesitation , it's like after we're done and then after we walk through the packages , and they're like okay , so I'm just going to have to think about it . And you know like there's a handful of those people , but then there are others that maybe have fallen off after . You know my posts follow up .

But they didn't have that hesitation in their voice . They're like okay , that sounds good , I'll talk to so and so about it . So you know , it's a little bit of both .

But I feel like I have a lot of traction on Yelp and I have a lot of reviews on Yelp which is great but at the same time , like there's a way to message me on Yelp and not go to my website at all .

So I know that I'm getting some leads there and I'm like , yeah , almost every time I get somebody from Yelp , I'm like yeah you really look thoroughly and then it's like I feel like I wasted my time for the most .

I don't want to throw Yelp under the bus , but it just feels like that's been not a great avenue for me , even though it's like I'm ranking really high on Yelp and so a lot of people reach out to me through that , and then we talk prices .

There are kind of some subtle nuanced things that go into a buying decision for someone who's not price shopping right , and a lot of it has to do with that alignment piece .

And I talk about this , you know , I'm sure you , I know you have heard me talk about , like the donkey , the workhorse and the unicorn , but like the various kind of the type of business that you run .

So if you are , you know , clothes shopping , there is a totally different experience between going to like a tgmax discount , you know warehouse kind of a thing , versus going into a shop on Fifth Avenue where it's everything is like beautifully laid out and it's quiet and whatever .

And when you think about your business on that spectrum , you want to think about where does it fall and and how does it work . So Prada doesn't have a storefront in a strip mall anywhere I'm sure , like there , you know , they have really fancy buildings and whatever , and so Yelp is one of those

. And yeah , there are plenty , I'm sure plenty of photographers who get great work from Yelp . I have never found that to be the case for my business , because I generally think that Yelp is a place that people go for reviews , but also it's kind of like a you know there's a discount feel to it right .

I can't remember the last time somebody reached out to me and said they found me on Yelp , but , like , where someone finds you will be , it'll be a factor . Not only I mean , it may be that they have the money to pay for your prices , but it's like they're just not .

That's like they found you in the wrong place so they have loaned you mentally and with a different kind of a group . So so , yeah , you really want to be as strategic as possible and , of course , people find us all over the place we do not have full control over .

Like marketing is one of those things that we can kind of put out our best feelers , but we , what comes comes for that particular issue , you may want to implement some sort of thing where , if someone reaches out from Yelp , you're sending them a video that you make once you know that does not have to be a personalized video , but where you're just like hey ,

I'm so excited to chat with you Before we jumped on the phone . I just wanted to send you this like basic , you know , some basic information , and then you basically read what you're going to put on your website about pricing . After talking a little bit about , you know , I would give them a little bit of a warmup to that .

It shouldn't just be like hey , I saw you found me on Yelp , so I just wanna make sure that you know that this is gonna cost $1,200 . Like , that's not , that's not the way to do it either .

But just to sort of like put that little bit of a buffer there so you can save your own time , because part of it too there is , like I said , when you increase your prices significantly , there's that six to nine month window that you have to be financially ready for but emotionally ready for , because you are going to hear more than normal .

You know the answer is no and you just kind of like there is a certain amount of it chips away at our ego or whatever , and I think that it's harder when you do that , when you're investing like the time for a phone call . So maybe just like a little medium or a median step for those specific Yelp leads .

You cannot do all of the things for marketing , but putting good effort and consistency into the things that historically have worked for you is a smart way to go .

One of the things that you had asked and I know that we're we don't have unlimited time here but one of the things that you had asked was about if you should consider having a smaller offer to sort of pad the financial piece of it a little bit , yeah , yeah .

And so I wanted to reiterate and I've talked about this on here before , so this may not be brand new to you , but I would definitely say that if you are getting inquiries and you feel like they seem like they're a good fit , but there's just like that one little like they're saying it's a price issue , I do think that a back pocket offer might be a good

option for you to have an offer that is , a smaller but still profitable offer as long , and the way that you make it profitable is that you reduce the amount of cost to you . So it's gonna be a shorter session . It's going to be like within a five mile radius of your house instead of like you trekking out to some place all the way across town .

So maybe you set the location and then I would put parameters around it in terms of it's not gonna interfere with your like high traffic times , times when you would want to book a regular session . So it may be like Tuesday evenings your partner keeps the kids and you're able to go do these half sessions .

Ideally , if they became and I'm saying half sessions , but it could be you could package it up any way you wanted . So ideally , this would get to a point where , if you're getting a lot of inquiries that are like that , maybe you can stack two or three of them .

So maybe you just do it once a month and they're 20 minutes long and you block off two hours and you go do four or five kind of in a row . So again , back pocket

offer . The main thing is that this is not an offer that you put on your website . It's not something you talk about on social media or in your newsletter .

This is something that , when someone inquires with you about a regular session and everything is a green light for them and for you , except that they say that the price is too high you say , well , you know , I do have space this coming , you know , tuesday , October 7th or whatever I am doing a set of short sessions , and then you give them the parameters for

that and I would set it up . You've already , you know , gone through this blueprint . I would set it up like a simple sales session , like they have collections to choose from .

But , you know , try and make it half the price , because if someone says to you the price point is too high and then you offer them something 50% lower , even if they have talked to other photographers whose full session is the same price , that's going to feel like , wow , she's really made a big .

You know , I'm getting this amazing photographer who typically charges twice this amount for this shorter thing and you can say you know I don't do these very often , but I've gotten a lot of demand so I've scheduled some for October . I have one space left . Would you like one ?

I guess my hesitancy is I've done a lot of many sessions in the past and I had a lot of return clients for those and then , but they never , they never got to me . So I guess it's kind of like the hesitancy there , but I also am like , well , I'd rather book something than nothing yeah .

You just don't want to set yourself up , and the difference to me with many sessions versus a back pocket offer is , when I say many sessions , I'm talking about something that I'm like sending out to my newsletter and I'm whatever if this is only an offer that somebody is getting from you after you've talked to them and they never . And then okay .

So let's say you work with them and next year comes along and they're like , oh , we can't wait to , you know , work with Brianna again . And they go to your website and they go to your Instagram and they don't see anything about many sessions and they're on your newsletter and they are not hearing anything about short sessions .

They could call you up and say , hey , are you doing those short sessions again ? And then your answer is either yes or no and you can decide . You can say you know what , now I've got all the business that I want . You can say , oh , I hope you're ready to , you know , because a full session is going to be all it's going to blow your mind .

If you liked that , like just wait , and if you're . But if you're in a situation where you have the extra time and you liked working with them and you got the sense that that really was the top of their budget , then sure you can schedule another one . I just I like to be picky about the people that I'm doing , sort of those , I mean .

I say favor , they're still paying you , but but you just don't want it because it also tarnishes your brand over time . If that's or it doesn't tarnish your brand , it adjusts your brand right . People start to associate you with like someone who does well , she has expensive sessions , but she also does cheaper sessions .

So that's kind of , I guess , my fear , but also the I don't know . I have to choose what . Which is the lesser evil , so to speak .

I really do , as I said , feel like things are starting to turn around and it wouldn't surprise me if , kind of your perfect storm of not great turns into like oh and now all of a sudden I'm full , like I am not discounting that as a very distinct possibility , but I do think that one of the hard things is just to get like a light shown on your business ,

like I just need some increase to come in so that I can . You know , the more inquiries , the more practice I get on my sales calls , the more I end up booking over time .

And I think that one thing that you could do , because you have been doing all this networking with local businesses , is consider pitching a local business or or two you know , depending on some sort of event , some sort of like thing .

In the fall , that is like a co-marketing pre-holiday whatever , and I don't have like all the details of that planned out for you , but there are tons of ideas out there .

You can , you know , you can Google co-marketing and pitch somebody with an idea and an event , and I feel like one of the things that can really get traction and get excited get people excited is Something that has kind of a fun hook or a fun name or a fun theme or something like that . You could do it as a fundraiser .

You want to make sure that you're doing something that is Limited in terms of you know you're not doing family sessions because that's what you sell , right , so you're just doing your photograph and kids or your photograph and kids in their Halloween costumes . That's a little too far down the road .

But like you know something that where people get to do something fun Maybe they get to support a cause that they feel Passionately about or something like that but your name and your business gets in front of all that all of them and you're capturing all of their Emails and their information and then you can turn around and make another offer to them .

That is sort of like okay , great , let's get you back for a full family session .

And I think that sometimes just doing something like that , taking action like that , it is a fair amount of time and effort , but if you have the time right now , it can kind of grease , the wheels too because you'll get excited about it and you'll you know , you'll feel like , okay , I'm making progress , I'm doing something , and just that shift in your I don't

know aura , I don't like I don't normally get woo at all on here People can they feel that , and when you're excited about your business and not feeling stressed by it , I think that that is reflected in number of people who ultimately choose to book you .

It's just that , like it's not easy to bring you know , to break into a new market , to break into a new price point , if you keep the faith and like kind of hold steady , what you are doing will pay off over time . These tiny Ideas that I have for you are really just that to kind of tide you over .

Even better , share the love by leaving a review in iTunes . And , as always , thanks so much for joining me . I hope you have a fantastic week . I .