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What We Would Do if We Started Our Business Today · Luxe & Legacy Podcast

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Welcome to the Lux and Legacy Podcast.
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I'm Marie from Marie Elizabeth Photography.
And I am Amber from Light Live in Photography.
We created this show for photographers who are ready to run a luxury business with clarity, intention, and elevated artistry.
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Each week we uncover the strategies behind high level brands from shooting and styling to client communication, to marketing, to designing heirloom products that increase your value.
If you want to attract aligned clients, produce, work with a recognizable aesthetic and build a business that supports the life you want, this podcast will guide you there.
Let's dive in.
Today's episode is one that I think is going to be incredibly helpful, especially for photographers who are newer or even photographers who feel like they want to rebuild their business with more intention.
Because this is not about starting from scratch.
It is about starting smarter with the 2020 vision of looking back at what we did, what was successful, what we could have done better.
When I began my business, I did grow quickly.
I focused heavily on my art and showing up consistently on Instagram, and that helped me book clients.
But if I were starting in 2026, I would build that same momentum with far more clarity and intention.
So the brand is elevated from day one instead of evolving into luxury later.
So here's what we would do.
So the first thing I would do if I started over would be to plan a ton.
Of styled sessions for roughly about a year or so to build a strong, intentional portfolio.
I wouldn't charge for these at all because I would want to have 100% creative control over them, so models would get images for free if they adhere to all the style, location, timing, and wardrobe decisions I made.
There are styled session contracts you can purchase, so that models take it seriously so you're not wasting your time.
I would plan styled sessions over the course of about a year that.
Were highly curated to reflect the kind of sessions I would want paid clients to hire me for.
I would be extremely picky about every wardrobe item, location, et cetera, so it aligned exactly with what I wanted to photograph moving forward.
Yes, I love this.
This is something that I did do right off the bat.
I would say three to six months into my business, I did a mentor session, like an in-person, just really casual mentor session with someone, she recommended that I do styled shoots.
And I was like, Hmm.
Like how do you do that? How do you find people? And she gave me some tips for that.
And it definitely changed my life, like changed my business because.
I went into photography because I'm an artist.
I'm a creative person, and so doing that, rather than waiting around for the right to come to me or posting in Facebook mom groups, hoping someone will book me, and then hoping that they have the same style as me, that was not gonna work very well.
So I pretty much initially.
I mean, three to six months in, I would say started doing style shoots really intentionally, and I loved it.
It got me fired up to do this more as a full-time business and not just a hobby.
And it made me feel like I'm the artist, not just.
Doing something for a client that has a different perspective than me.
if I were to start over, I would definitely recommend right off the bat, plan out a year's worth of styled shoots.
You can start with Pinterest, see what excites you, see what gets you, your creative engines all revved up, and what you really want to build into your business.
Then you can research locations in your area that might.
Fit those, those ideas well and that aesthetic.
Well, you can start looking for models on Instagram, contacting them, asking them if they'd be interested in doing some style shoots and in exchange for free photos.
So I would really, really rev up the styled shoots, and I still recommend this to my coaching clients and anyone who asks about starting a new business.
Designing styled shoots that re reflect exactly who you want to attract and who you want to serve is a really great way to have marketing for your business.
Not just content of clients who book you, but marketing.
So these are the shoots that become your visual identity of your business, and it's really worth the investment, you guys, 'cause I know they're not cheap to do a styled shoot.
Sometimes they have permit fees.
Maybe you wanna tip the hair and Mika people, the florist, et cetera, But it's marketing and any business invests in marketing in some way or another.
So I think it's really worth it when you're starting out, when.
Yeah, it is so worth it.
I remember the first couple of styled sessions that I did when I decided what I wanted my brand to be.
I was extremely intentional with the choices I made for those.
And I could still share the images from those sessions today.
I think I still have some of them on my website because it, they aligned so much with my brand and where I want, wanted my brand to go.
So these kinds of.
Investments in styled shoots.
I mean, you can invest more in some than others, you know, but it's going to pay off.
And I think that so many photographers begin their businesses and kind of let clients take the wheel and basically dictate the kind of sessions they shoot with, whether it comes to wardrobe or just style in general, whereas.
We are the artists and when we're building our business, we wanna be extremely intentional with all of our choices.
So style shoots allow us to do that compared to if you're just booking clients, throughout those first couple months to a year and end up photographing all of these sessions that really don't align with where you wanna be.
The next tip that we have is really focusing on your education first.
yeah, you can learn how you want your style to be over years and years of experience.
But from the beginning, I invested in a lot of really great quality education, and yes, my experience built and expanded on that, but is so important.
It's really worth the investment to get a course and check out the course reviews first, because I know there's a lot out there and it can be really intimidating.
Really check out the reviews.
If something has worked for multiple people, it's probably a really great course for you, and knowing how to shoot really well before you start doing these styled shoots and can do these marketing images and just take your, your work up a notch right away.
I can't recommend courses enough.
If someone's going to just.
Get into this as a business.
I say, where are you going to lose most money? Years and years of not elevating your portfolio or the cost of like a $500 course or a $600 course.
You know what I mean? So I would invest highly in education if I were to start over.
And that teaches you an education that teaches you how to truly see light.
Direct emotion and style intentionally, as well as create work that feels refined because no amount of marketing can compensate for work that doesn't yet match the level that you want to attract.
And your art is the foundation of a luxury brand.
I would spend my early months learning, practicing, and refining my eyes so that the work itself is strong enough to support the brand I want to build.
I feel like that my.
Business really began ticking off once I started investing in education.
Y.
Yes, experience is the greatest teacher and you will learn so much through experience, but it will take much, much longer if you rely on experience alone.
So invest in education to address any holes you have in your photography skills during this.
Year period.
So for me personally, I would focus on the art aspect first, so I can be confident in my skills before I begin to charge high profitable pricing.
Because confidence really comes from knowing your work is strong enough to support the brand you're building.
Exactly.
Okay, our next tip.
finding a community and then finding your own voice.
Community is always great to have, especially as photographers where we feel alone a lot of the time.
Having that group of photographers, or at least a, a few people that you can rely on and connect with in this industry is incredibly helpful.
But in terms of styled shoots and marketing, it's also really great to connect with a small group of aligned photographers who have the same style to scout locations together, share ideas, split the cost of those first few styled shoots, and encourage each other while learning that shared investment can make those first elevated shoots much more affordable, more accessible for you.
But then I don't want you to stay.
Hooked or reliant on that.
Those relationships, I want you to keep them as friendships, but it's really important to eventually start branch branching out and creating your own style shoots by yourself.
You have more time to really dive into the posing the storytelling, creating exactly what your vision for your brand is without considering other people's voice and kind of muddying up.
What, what you wanna do with your styled shoe.
So yes, initially diving in and kind of getting your feet wet and kind of getting used to doing these things.
It's nice to do it with a friend, but don't stay in the cycle of that for too, too long because it's really important to intentionally.
Grow your own voice, your own artistic style, and that includes everything from where you want to shoot to exactly what you want them to wear, how you want the posing to be.
Maybe the other person wants it more and relaxed and still, and you want more joyful motion, adventurous type of photo shoots.
Whatever it is, there's gonna be differences.
So it's important to start creating independently.
If you stay in the group too long, your work can start to look like everyone else's and your brands become blended too much and people will like mix you up.
I love that you gave like a great example of how to find community by like reaching out to some photographers who are in the same level.
Of their business as you are to create something together.
So it's something exciting that everyone can participate in and gain from.
And also help with the investment aspect of a style of session.
And as Amber said, like these are a great way to meet some other photographers and get some content.
You just don't want to only do that because then your work is going to look the same as.
Everyone else around you, right? But having that community is so incredibly important as your business begins to grow because you're going to face.
These unknown hurdles every time your business grows and just having a soundboard to of other photographers who have either experienced the same thing or are experiencing the same thing or will experience the same thing as you, is, there's really something to be said for that.
It is like, you know.
Someone sitting down with you with a warm cup of coffee and just talking you through the next phase.
And I have some really close photographer friends here in the DC area that I'm so grateful for, and it's just extremely helpful in terms of.
The business side of things like having other photographers close that you can throw questions to, but just like for the friendship side of things, having friends that know what, what it's like to go through what you are going through and being there for you as you experience it.
Okay, so after focusing on building my portfolio for about a year, that's when I would then set my pricing based off my cost of doing business.
So what that means is I would add.
All the expenses that I not only had but foresaw that I would have.
So that includes gears, subscriptions, equipment, any studio expenses.
Even if I didn't have a studio, but I wanted one, I would anticipate any expenses that would come up in my business.
So I would build them in.
Now it is so.
So much more difficult to slowly creep your pricing up over the course of years rather than immediately jump into profitable pricing because when you raise it over time, you need to start over in new markets over and over again.
And this can be incredibly discouraging and it's so easy to get.
Bogged down and feel stuck because what happens is you're going to hear nos over and over from clients who did say yes.
It's just really hard on your mindset.
It's hard to keep raising and then finding your market.
You're doing basically work that you really need to only do once so many times, so you just kind of waste a lot of time, in my opinion.
But if you had that year of portfolio building an experience, you really are ready to skip all of that in between and go right into becoming a profitable business.
And I wanna say, you don't need to be perfect.
You're no one ever, you know, quote, arrives in their work.
Like you're going to continue to grow and continue to get.
Better.
So don't expect yourself to be perfect or exactly where you wanna be after that year of portfolio building.
And that also goes to say you're not gonna be booked right away by any means, but any sessions you do book at new, the new profitable pricing, they will be profitable for your business and set you up for success in the long run.
Yeah, it's actually easier if you were to make a big jump than small jumps because that psychological effect of, oh gosh, my previous clients, they're, they're gonna be, they're gonna be unhappy weather.
You switched from $300 or $200 up to if you switched to $600 more per session.
Like either way.
A lot of those clients are going to drop off at every checkpoint, right? But we can't hang on to those old clients who we'd love, even though.
You know, we've talked about this in other pricing podcasts before, but let your love of your clients hold you back from growing your business because in their job, they wouldn't let other people hold them back from getting a raise or promotion, right.
wouldn't let like people in the department they're in.
Decide what they make, you know? So it's the same thing with a business.
We have to do it based on the type of life we wanna build for ourselves, what our expenses are, which are very high in this, this industry.
we have to be able to save for our retirement, our taxes, our kids' college tuition.
And a lot of the time we get this guilty feeling of charging.
What may feel like a lot more, but when you do that calculation over time and what you need to save for you know, current grocery prices are, gas, everything.
It's really.
It's a lot more than you think.
So go ahead and make that jump, like Marie said, into the higher market right away, because that way people in that market will start referring you to their friends rather than you getting referred to people who are in a market that are more of the mid range or budget range.
So the sooner you can get out of it, the better.
Of course you can't dive into it immediately, but like we said, after a year or two years.
Make a big jump because it's gonna be easier that way than making the small price increases.
Yes, absolutely.
So once my pricing was profitable and I had that.
Years worth of portfolio building.
I would then pour any income I made from photography and possibly my current income.
You know, if I was working a job to focus on marketing like learning SEO or social media and.
At this point, photography would not be my full-time occupation yet since there is usually a lull in between raising your pricing to a profitable level and booking consistently.
So it, I remember when I first raised my pricing into profitable range, and I was booking like one session every couple of months, and so it was not a lot.
Any money I made from photography, I poured back into my business.
Since it wasn't my full-time job, I didn't need that money to survive, so I would not.
Quote, pay yourself from photography until you are booking consistently at in the profitable range.
So during that transition, during that lull, any sessions that you book, you wanna use that money and invest it back in your business.
And I recommend investing in marketing so you can learn how to get clients to consistently book you.
I did the same thing, I was a full-time interpreter for many years, and then I just kind of slowly took on less interpreting work and more photography work, so I didn't feel like I had to immediately start booking for, you know, paying the basic bills.
I like the idea of having that as more of a cushion you're first starting out and building your business because.
It's stressful when we put ourselves in the position of absolutely needing it.
And then you're in the scarcity mode and it's easy to then dive into doing sessions that aren't aligned with you, your brand, who you.
Want to create as your online presence, and it can muddy up your brand.
It can make you Google confused about who you are as an artist or who you are as a business, excuse me.
And it can make your clients confused about it, and it can make you feel frustrated and overworked.
So if you can, I highly recommend keeping your, your initial job for a little longer until you have enough of a cushion and your.
Booking much more consistently to be able to switch to full-time photography.
Okay.
I would also invest in SEO more if I were to do this again.
I've had the luxury of Instagram working so well for me to bring in clients constantly, but I know that.
a little different nowadays.
It can be a little bit harder, even though I think Instagram still works really well.
I do think that it can be harder to start in 2026.
So after about a year of, after you have a strong portfolio and you've learned a lot about lighting and shooting, then I would start to invest in SEO courses or hire a VA to do it.
The past few years I've had a VA kind of slowly work on my SEO and a lot of times these VAs, they're not SEO specialists, so bought courses and then sent them the login into the course 'cause it's for my business.
So that's okay.
And had them watch that and then apply that and make small tweaks here and there to my business because it's just something that.
I don't really love studying.
If you can do it yourself and learn it yourself, like Marie, that's more power to you for sure.
But if you, you're someone who's like, oh, I'll worry about that later.
Don't make that mistake because it really is valuable to have not all of your eggs in one basket by having just Instagram or, or just TikTok or whatever it is.
So learning SEO in the beginning, after about a year or so, will definitely help you bring in clients who are already searching.
media builds connection and shows your artistry, but SEO brings in clients who are usually in the higher end market.
I would say, and it brings in clients who are already searching for a photographer.
So together they're gonna create consistent visibility instead of relying on just the algorithm alone.
Okay.
Our next tip is about building a curated brand presence.
This is something Maria and I both feel very strongly about.
I would be extremely selective about what I share.
On my Instagram and website when I was first starting out.
The biggest mistake I see with budget photographers who are struggling to book is they're showing like, oh, I took this picture of my, my toddler in the cornfield.
Like, and they're putting that in their feed, or, oh, my kids' birthday party, and it's just in front of.
You know, not a place that you would take a professional session because clients will see that and think that's your client session, because they don't take the second to read.
The caption.
If they're a new client coming to your page, they're not gonna care.
They're just gonna look at the work as a whole and think, okay, is this elevated and very professional, or does it feel lower budget? So if something's like my family, we were at the pumpkin patch, or we were on a train ride or whatever, Disneyland, whatever, I would share those in my stories and not in my feed.
'cause your main feed should function like a curated gallery and only work that reflects that elevated experience to attract the client you want should live there.
Okay.
I do think Instagram is still incredibly valuable in 2026 for growing a photography business.
It has helped me grow quickly and I was always very selective.
I think from the early stages about what I shared.
I treated it like a curated gallery, not a place to show everything that I photographed, and I still don't show a lot of things that I photograph I would recommend if someone's starting out they should be more intentional, even more intentional than I was when I started, because the algorithm is a lot pickier these days.
I remember hearing some kind of phrase a while back that basically said like, imagine like, okay, any image that you share, whether it's says social media, your website, even with clients.
Would you be okay if that was the only image to represent your brand, that anyone who felt came across your brand, that was the image that was tied to it.
And that serves as like a really good filter for me when I'm choosing not only like what to share, but what to photograph and you know.
What to include in my client's galleries.
So I think that having that mindset of, okay, this image is going to be forever tied to my brand, does it align? That's an important mindset to have.
And one thing we're gonna talk about next is something we've talked about in an episode before we had a whole episode about using AI in your business.
So if you haven't heard that, go back and check that one out.
It was really good, but something.
and I did not have when we first started out was Chacha bt, I really think that one of the great things about Chacha BT is actually helping you flesh out who you are as a brand and your identity.
Instead of figuring it out over years, I would shape that identity for your brand early on, so everything feels cohesive.
Now I wanna here.
I'm not saying you should ask chat GPT to build your brand.
saying you're using it to clarify your own instincts so you can move forward with confidence and consistency faster.
Instead of spending years trying to figure out how to say what you mean, you gain language and styled shoot marketing ideas, caption ideas that support your vision that you already have.
I love that it's kind of like using chat GBT as just a tool, right? To aid you in staying on your course, in your lane, that is your brand, that achieves your brand voice, your vision, all of that.
It's just a tool.
Think that they're gonna get less work if they're offering less things.
Now back to styled shoots, what we were talking about with creating shoots that are intentional for marketing.
I also want you guys to pay attention to when you're shooting for clients, what truly lights you up.
So I think a lot of people when they're first starting their businesses stay too long in the zone of, I do.
A million different types of photography.
I do event photography, I do newborns, weddings cake smash.
I do photos, everything.
I'm just a photographer.
But if you pay attention, really pay attention to what lights you up when you get home, do you feel exhausted from that? Shoot? Do you feel frustrated from that shoot or do you feel like, wow, I have so much energy, I feel really it.
Lighted me up.
I felt really passionate about doing that shoot, and I feel like the sooner you cut out the things that you're not passionate about, the quicker you will actually book aligned clients.
The more you will book and at higher prices, because that passion really shines through.
And so I really want you guys, when you're starting out, pay attention which sessions energize you, which ones drain you, and which ones align with the brand that you want to create.
So allow yourself basically to niche down faster than trying to serve anyone and everyone.
This is true like as your business grows like over the course of years, because you are going to grow as an artist as well, you may want to fine tune your posing or try a new location or play with some colors and so.
By creating styled sessions that achieve this new aesthetic you're aiming for, it allows you to grow along with your business.
So styled sessions are definitely something.
Amber and I sing the praises of styled sessions all the time, and it's something we still do.
So we're still energized with our work.
Okay, so we gave you a lot of information today because if we were starting over this year, we would not chase more sessions, more work, photographing everything and anything.
I would build a body of work, a voice, and a brand that clearly speaks to the client I want.
Yeah, the fastest way to build a luxury photography business is not by doing everything.
It's by doing the right things in the right order with intention.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Lux and Legacy Podcast.
If this episode resonated with you, we'd love you to share it or leave a review and I wanna, blah, blah, blah.
I wanna plug the course here.
Also, just so you know, Marie and I both have amazing photography courses, and on today's episode I wanted to give you a very special coupon code.
You can use Legacy 200 to get $200 off either of my courses.
I have an amazing posing course for family and maternity.
Photographers and I have a shooting and editing course called the Light Live in Transformation course that has had massive transformation for so many students.
So if you'd like to check those out, we'll put the link in the show notes.
you know what else we're gonna put in the show notes for you is a little chat BT cheat sheet with some prompts that you can use to help you kind of flesh out your brand identity and help you create the brand you've always been dreaming of.
All right, we'll see you next week.
Thank you so much for spending time with us today on the Luxe and Legacy Podcast.
We love being part of your journey as you build a luxury photography business that feels aligned and elevated.
Be sure to follow us at Light underscore Live in underscore photography and.
At Marie Elizabeth and if you enjoyed today's episode, we would be so grateful if you left a review.
It truly helps other photographers.
Like you discover the show and join this community.
Make sure to join us next week.
We have another conversation that's going to inspire and give you even more tools to grow your brand with confidence.
We can't wait to see you then.
Bye.