If you're a burned out photographer trying to balance sessions, but you're not seeing the profits you want, this episode is for you. Today I'm talking with Stockton, California, photographer, Jia Chong. Last year, she photographed 120 sessions, made $56K and knew something had to change. Fast forward to 2024 and in just three months, she transitioned her business model and her mindset and you won't believe the difference.
Hi Gia. What did your business model look like when you started?
Gia Chong: My business was built on mini sessions. I'm a COVID business and I didn't think people would want pictures in the last part of 2020. If I'm in my busy season, my family knows that my evenings are not available. I did a lot of discounting so that they would purchase their pictures in the next two days. I would do Zoom gallery presentations. Instead of spending dinner time or after work time with my family, I'm doing Zoom presentations. I knew there should be a better way of doing this.
Sarah Petty: So after being in business for three years right after the pandemic, you'd kind of proven to yourself that people will spend money on portraits. But then you get into volume and you're just chasing more customers and doing all this work on the back end. What changed for you? When did you realize that it wasn’t working for you?
Gia Chong: What I realized is if I do my job well, because most people upgrade. That's where the attraction for doing more in-person sales with products made sense to me because I was limiting what they could purchase.
Sarah Petty: When you invested in Boutique Breakthrough, had you ever invested in yourself?
Gia Chong: I’ve always invested in myself but I'm a serial program buyer. So maybe some of you are like that. Boutique Breakthrough was the scariest thing I've ever done just because it's so different, especially if you're coming from a digital mindset. I was coming from a mindset where I had to be at a certain price point for people to purchase.
Sarah Petty: When you did Boutique Breakthrough, you actually transitioned two of your digital clients pretty quickly. Talk about that.
Gia Chong: Part of me was really scared because my batting average for repeat clients is really high. I used the transition script you gave us with those clients and it was so helpful. I told the mom of the family session that I invested in a coach and I'm transitioning my business. In the past, I would have sold that all the digital files, for maybe $790. She invested in an album for $1,997.
Sarah Petty: Holy moly. So your first two “Julies”, $1k or more client order, came up to be almost $3,300. How did you feel when you followed this system and that happened?
Gia Chong: I wanted to pitch myself because it was actually easy. I was nervous going into it. I put the expectation bar super low so that if nothing happened, I wouldn't feel bad.
Sarah Petty: That is insane. Two orders for $3,300.
Gia Chong: If I were doing my mini session model, it would have been at least six clients to reach $3,300.
Sarah Petty: That is so much easier. How are you feeling about getting your time back?
Gia Chong: I feel weird now because I'm supposed to be slammed this time of year and I'm not and I'm okay and still making money.
Sarah Petty: Your story is so inspirational. I appreciate you, Gia. Thank you so much.
Download the Episode Transcript Here
