Personal Brand Photography is an amazing way to grow your business.

But, as I’ve learned by being on both sides of the lens on a personal brand photography shoot, there’s a right way to do it when it comes to booking personal brand photography clients — and a whole bunch of wrong ways!

I’ve been a personal brand photographer for six years, but I’m also an entrepreneur who’s been a personal brand photography client. Recently I’ve been working with many of my Sparkle Society clients on getting their own personal brand photography businesses going, and it warms my heart to see you all going for it! But, I know from choosing a PB ‘tog for myself that a lot of you are having trouble booking clients. The reasons why? Well, they’re no mystery to me. I’ve twice attempted to hire personal brand photographers in the last six months and the responses I’ve gotten to my queries both shocked and disappointed me. Today I’m taking those experiences and telling you that if you aren’t booking PBP clients, I just might know why!  Here are 3 reasons why you’re NOT booking personal brand photography clients.

Warning: this blog post may offend you and you may not like me very much as you’re reading it.  But I’m seeing photographer after photographer make these same mistakes and I would be a horrible coach and friend if I didn’t say something.  So please know, this is said with love.  My job is to make you grow – not make you comfortable.  xoxo, C

1. You’re over-shooting and forcing your clients to choose their own images

Does that shock you, fellow photographers? I thought it might. Honestly, step one to success with booking personal brand photography clients is realizing that they are a totally different type of client. With our clients for family portraits, weddings, and senior and infant sessions, we take a zillion images and then let them pick their favorites. It takes them awhile to choose, then they give us their choices. Then, we take our time preparing their order and delivering their finished images.

PLEASE hear me when I say: Personal brand photography clients?? THEY AIN’T GOT TIME FOR THAT! Your ideal client for PB photography is an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs are craaaazy busy 24/7! {You guys know I’m speaking from experience here!}

When booking personal brand photography clients, you need to realize that their time is money.

They don’t have time to select the best images from the 100 you shot. These clients just want you to take some photos and deliver them the amount they need, finished. Case en pointe: last time I was on the client end of one of these shoots, I didn’t even look at the finished photos my photographer brought me for THREE WHOLE WEEKS. Because I didn’t have time!!! Imagine if I’d had to find the time to choose my 50 favorite out of a gazillion? It just never would have happened and she’d still be waiting on me!

As a matter of fact, when I searched for a PB photographer for myself recently, I immediately stopped reading and moved on to the next ‘tog if they said anything like “your session includes 25 photos of your choosing from the session and additional images are $x per image.” I just crossed them off the list! Don’t make these clients choose. They do NOT have the time, trust me!!!

2. You’re not focusing on or listening to potential client needs

Another reason you’re not booking personal brand photography clients is that you’re too focused on your business needs and not on what your potential client needs. I one zilllllion percent understand that starting a new leg of your business is a huge thing. However, the key to a successful personal brand photography business is to throw your needs out the window and focus solely on providing what your client needs. Two words, my friends: BE FLEXIBLE.

Let me take another example from my own recent search for a personal brand photographer to meet my needs. I let it be known that I was on vacation but wanted to do a personal brand photography session for MY business while I was visiting this cool place! Noting that I only had ONE HOUR, I sent out queries specific to my needs, including that I’d be doing my own hair and makeup and had NO time to meet up before the shoot. The responses I got were frankly, shocking. Most of the photographers trying to book me completely threw my needs out the window and just started offering me their standard packages. These photographers told me that:

• They would charge me extra for booking my own hair and makeup AND not meeting up beforehand because that made my shoot a “custom package”. UMM, charged extra for making the photographer’s life easier? HOW ABOUT NOPE!!!
• A session with the amount of photos I wanted was not an option {hello, I am a photographer, so I know how many photos you can shoot in an hour!}
• I would be paying for flights and hotels for them to travel to my location when I specifically said I wanted a LOCAL photographer who was already in that city and knew the area!
• I needed to come up with the shoot location… even though I made it clear I was TRAVELING during this shoot and was not a local {a.k.a I had no idea where I was… and I was certainly not going to have time to do their job for them!}

When it comes to booking personal brand photography clients, either meet client needs or don’t bother.

As you can see, these photographers were MUCH more interested in THEIR needs, and not interested in meeting MY needs. I 100% know that it was not intentional… but many of these offers felt more like demands…. and came off very rude.

So much so, they did not book me as a client. And if you’re not going to meet clients needs or be willing to listen to them? Then you will have consistent trouble booking personal brand photography clients.

These people need someone to get and understand their crazy busy lives, and who is willing to help them get that shoot done so they can keep doing business!

Thankfully, on this occasion, I finally found a personal brand photographer willing to do just that for me — the wonderful Anna of Anna Graf Photography. WOW, did this amazing business woman bend over backwards to earn my business! Anna picked up props for me, found the perfect place to shoot, and brought a changing tent for outfit changes. She did ALL the things I couldn’t do for myself because I was not at my home base! If I am ever in her city again, I will definitely be booking her for another amazing personal brand shoot! Be like Anna, and you will be booking personal brand photography clients like gangbusters!!

3. Your prices are INSANE

The last reason you might not be booking personal brand photography clients is that your prices are way too high.

Listen peeps, I know that I am always preaching that you should know your worth: and that is still 100% true. But, your worth when you are starting a new branch of your business is not as high as your worth at what you’re already amazing at shooting.

You should NOT be charging white-glove personal brand photography prices when you’re first starting out with this type of work.

Hear me out: it is 100% a best practice to offer personal brand photography clients a discounted or beta membership-type rate as you build your PB portfolio. Yes, you will eventually be able to charge whatever ya darn well please for your personal brand sessions. But that’s not what you should be doing out of the gate. You can’t charge boutique prices for a $500 experience.

As I mentioned, I’ve been doing personal brand photography for six years, and I’ve earned the right to charge what I do. Consequently, as a client for other personal brand photographers, I have high expectations when I’m paying for a session! It might seem like you can charge big money for PB clients because entrepreneurs have a lot money. However, entrepreneurs are smart business people and they want the appropriate amount of BANG for their BUCK! They aren’t gonna invest top dollar if you have no personal brand portfolio to show them!

So spend some time getting to know your personal brand photography craft before you raise those rates. Learn how to create a top-notch experience for your clients before you jump into a high price point.

Changing these three things is THE key to booking personal brand photography clients!

If you’re struggling in this area, take a step back, re-focus, and then re-launch your biz with these three things in mind. Then, watch your bookings flourish with clients who will return to you again and again!  I know this has the potential to be a thriving part of your business, but you’ve GOT to make sure you’re creating an experience that’s custom designed for this type of client!

Now, I’m never going to rip you apart without also telling you how to fix these mistakes. As such, I HIGHLY encourage you to join my friend Jamie, from the Modern Tog, as she leads a Personal Brand Photography challenge.  Between Jamie and myself, we’m putting our years of teaching and experience on both sides of the lens to work for ya! Jump in with us and we will rock this out together! I can’t wait to see your PB biz explode… and my heart explode along with it!