067: How $1k Vintage Dishes Turned Into a Lesson on Marketing

I was supposed to go to Lowe's. My husband and I were out running errands and I remembered that Grouse House an antique and vintage home goods warehouse that an interior design client had been telling me about for weeks was having a sale. So I made an executive decision that a Saturday at a gorgeous warehouse full of vintage European furniture sounded a lot better than a Saturday looking at plastic planters under fluorescent lighting. I did not expect to spend a thousand dollars. I also did not expect to walk out with a collaboration in the works, a lunch date on the calendar, and a Matriarch session booked. But that's what happened. And in this episode I'm walking you through the whole thing the DMs, the content, the collab pitch that happened mid-candle-order because I think the way it unfolded is more useful to you than any strategy I could draw up on a whiteboard. I also want to talk about something my girl Laura Stansberry brought up in my Posers membership when I shared this story, because she named a pattern that I know a lot of you are stuck in too, where you try to do a collaboration, end up giving away a free session, get one post out of it, and never hear from them again. That's not a collaboration. And by the end of this episode you'll know exactly what the difference is. Here's what we're getting into: Why I've always treated every room I walk into as a room full of my next clients and how that mindset was born when I was shooting weddings The behind-the-scenes content habit that has done more for my personal brand than any portfolio post ever has What actually happened at Grouse House and why the alignment between our businesses made everything easy The real DMs including the part where I pitched a collaboration in the same message where I was ordering a candle How the Matriarch session got booked without a single sales conversation The difference between a collaboration and an influencer deal (this one is important) A 7-step playbook you can take and use in your own market today This is one of those episodes where the story is the strategy. I hope it makes you want to get your boots on the ground. Timestamps:00:00 Podcast Intro00:42 What Collaboration Means03:14 Weddings As Client Rooms05:08 Working The Room07:27 Warehouse Sale Story12:25 Content That Builds Trust21:21 DMs And The Soft Pitch24:53 Avoiding Freebie Traps28:16 Collab Is Access Exchange31:15 Seven Step Playbook38:17 Wrap Up And Call To Action40:31 Outro And Reviews 🔗 Connect with Jodi:📸 Website: https://www.j-annephotography.com📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j.annephotography Love this kind of coaching?Make sure you’re on my newsletter list where I share the behind-the-scenes of launches, pricing, posing psychology, and what it really takes to scale a photography business with soul. 📣 Help Spread the Word!The Mastermind Waitlist → If this episode lit something up for you, if you recognized yourself in the pattern of working hard without seeing the growth you know you're capable of the Posers Mastermind is where we fix that. This is my most comprehensive program for photographers who are done leaving money on the table and ready to build a business with actual strategy behind it. We go deep on marketing, lead generation, content, email, sales psychology, pricing, client experience, and the mindset it takes to run a profitable company, not just a busy one. Everything I taught in this episode is just the surface of what we build together inside. I built this business as a single mom of three boys with no fallback plan and no safety net. Failure genuinely was not an option. The strategies I teach inside the Mastermind are the same ones that turned my camera into a career, my career into a company, and my company into a life I'm incredibly proud of. If you're ready to stop hoping the bookings come and start building the machine that makes them get on the waitlist for the next round. https://j-anne-photography.kit.com/posers-waitlist The Posing Method → My signature course that teaches you how to pose the brain instead of the body so you can drop dopamine and oxytocin in the first two minutes of a shoot and completely transform your galleries. https://j-annephotography.com/the-posing-method Pass Platinum → Stop scrambling for a last-minute sale. Use my link to get 2 months of Platinum free WITH A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE when you start collecting cash on autopilot. https://success.passgallery.com/jodianne-platinum-referral