Podcast Ep 383 - How to Charge Premium Prices (and Feel Confident Doing It)

In this episode of the Flourish Academy Podcast, host Heather Lahtinen and guest Nicole Begley dive into the power of selling an experience rather than just a product. Using the viral success of the Jellycat Diner in New York as a real-world case study, they unpack how scarcity, storytelling, and elevated presentation can transform something ordinary into something highly desirable and premium-priced.

Heather and Nicole connect these lessons directly to the photography industry—showing photographers how they can use experience-driven marketing to raise prices, attract premium clients, and build a loyal community.

Whether you’ve ever hesitated to charge more or simply want to build a luxury brand, this conversation will shift the way you think about value.


Show Notes:

• Why focusing on experience matters more than the product itself

• Nicole’s story of trying to book the Jellycat Diner

• How Jellycat created scarcity and desire around stuffed animals

• The psychology of “perceived value” and pricing

• Overcoming mindset blocks about being “overpaid”

• How to translate luxury selling into your own business
  
  

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Join our next free coaching workshop: www.getcoachedbyheather.com

Connect:

Heather Lahtinen: Website, Facebook, Instagram

Nicole Begley: https://hairofthedogacademy.com/

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TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast and today we are talking about

selling the experience rather than just the photos. My name is Heather Lahtinen and

I'm a photographer, educator and entrepreneur and I founded the Flourish Academy as a

resource for photographers of all levels. We want to help you pursue your passion on

your own terms because we believe there is room for everyone. In this podcast, we

focus on creating breakthroughs with your mindset to discover the things that are

really holding you back in business and life. Today, I'm sharing a recent

conversation with my good friend Nicole Begley on high end luxury selling regarding

the experience, essentially how to take an ordinary regular product or service and do

a masterful job with marketing and messaging to bring it to the high -end market.

Before we dive in, if you have any questions about your photography business, or

would just like to get some help, please join me for our next free upcoming fast

track coaching call. Head over to www .getcoachedbyheather .com to register.

Even if you don't have a question, you can join us to just listen in on what

other photographers are doing to grow their business. I hope you enjoy our

conversation. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast.

I'm your host, Nicole Bagley. And today we have Heather Lawton and back on the

podcast, I feel like we go and fits and starts Heather where like things, I

actually, I know why, I know why. It's when I go out of town, all of a sudden

I'm like, I haven't talked to Heather in a while, but, but I've been in town. I've

been in town for almost two months now. - That's insanity. How are you surviving?

Are you surviving? - I am, I am. I leave in 11 days again, so I'm okay. Oh, and

I have two horses in the meantime. - Okay, okay. You're gonna make it. I'm sure.

- Sure, good. I will thrive. Actually, it's funny. My been on at the airport three

times since I left and like what what kind of real reversal is this why are you

continuing to go to the airport every couple of weeks and I am here but that's

okay that's okay it's all good actually been getting a lot of major projects done

it's been nice to get a actually I'm gonna say this out loud it's been nice to

get a routine going my kids school started again because summer was getting,

I mean, they take care of themselves, they feed themselves, they, you know, they're

teenagers.

But there was still just a lot my son doesn't drive yet. So then I feel bad if

he was like sitting around here, but he's like, oh, can I go here? Can I go to a

friend's house? I'm like, okay, I have to drive you.

But anyway, so now that there's a little bit of a routine back, which is good,

which means that I can dig to some work, which has been awesome. And one of those

things is planning future events, which I don't know,

should we let the cat out of the bag already? I mean, we should probably because

you just did. So I say, we must say, go ahead and tease our elevate group because

I just wanted to kind of get numbers on who would be interested. And there's

actually coming down next month for a little pow wow in Charlotte and we're gonna

finalize the planning while she's here. But we're gonna do a two day elevate live

situation here in Charlotte, quarter one.

- Very, very exciting. - Oh my gosh, it's gonna be amazing. All of just, I mean,

the community inside of elevate is off the freaking charts. I have never been in in

a community like that. People are so supportive, so active, getting so many results.

It is unbelievable. And to bring everybody together in person, it's going to be

fantastic. It is going to be amazing. And it's interesting that this is coming up

now, because about 10 minutes ago, I was talking to one of our elevators, and I

had asked her, I said, "Hey, when you joined, what was it that maybe got you off

the fence or, you know, you, you finally took the leap. And she said, I have just

never been part of a community being around you. It was so encouraging that you

just, you didn't feel alone. You didn't feel stupid. Like you can ask anything.

And she said, there's so much I'm learning. She's just get, she's been photographing

for a while, but she's just getting started with paid photography, you know, like

actually getting clients that pay her. And she said, I just, you know, she felt

like she might be behind or wouldn't know what she was doing. And she told me that

she was pleasantly surprised that it was even more encouraging than she thought.

She had been listening to us on the podcast and she had been, I think a part of

some of the coach weeks, which, you know, keep an eye open. There'll be one of

those coming up soon where you can get your questions answered or just work with me

directly and I said to her, I'm so thankful that you said that because one of my

core values is connection and I want to make sure that we are very connected and

that I know who you are, you know who I am, I know about your business. So just

to reiterate, I said this recently, like Elevate is 100 % of my job and my focus.

My only job is to figure out how to help you make more money faster. That's it.

100 % of what I do. So it's important to me to be connected to you and to your

business. And she said, Heather, you know what? I feel that. I said, good. I hope

that you do. I love it. Yeah. So it's going to be incredible. By the way,

one of my main values is also community. So yes, very similar.

Yeah. Oh gosh, it's gonna be awesome. So anyway, so I've been planning that and

then I've also started planning a workshop that I'm teaching with Shelly Paulson. We

did the on delusion escape this past spring in Spain. Next fall,

we are going to France. Oh, spring, spring in Spain and fall in France. I mean,

amazing, we're going to have to go in winter. Actually we're thinking of like a

Wyoming in winter. So they're right. There we go. There you go.

But anyway, so we're planning that. So I have had a little like, you know, I've

been able to plan some travel. So that's bringing this back around full circle, how

I've got my sanity being here for as long as I have. Yes, right. Okay. So tell us

about a recent experience you had. Oh, yeah. So this summer, I think I might have

mentioned, I didn't mention this one, but if you're on my email list, you might

have seen that I went to New York with my kids and their nieces and nephews, my

sister and my mother -in -law, and kind of planned a little Big Apple adventure.

Some of the tourist things found the best hot chocolate in the US because it's a

Parisian hot chocolate at Angelina's in New York. It's originally in Paris.

And it is so good. So if you're in New York, go get your hot chocolate Angelina.

But my niece is 11. And her request was to go to the jelly cat diner.

It's like, Okay, so I looked it up and I'm like, interesting. And I looked up

tickets sold out, sold out, sold out. I'm like, this is like a Taylor Swift

concert. How do you get tickets for this thing? And so anyway, so I'm talking to

my sister -in -law. She's like, it's okay if we don't get a ticket because the

ticket, you guys, okay, I'm back up. The ticket is just to buy something. So let's,

let's back up a little bit to what this whole jelly cat thing is. Heather, you

started off cause you actually told me about these jelly cats like two years ago,

maybe a year and a half ago. And I was like, sorry, jelly, what? I know it

doesn't make any sense. So my daughter works or worked at a high end gift shop.

So I'm not talking like a Hallmark gift shop. I'm talking about an independently

owned where, for example, they sell a bag, excuse me,

a tin of potato chips. I want to say they're like $84 for this. What?

Yeah, it's this special oil, Nicole, that they use. Okay. So try to where is this?

So where is this? Is it over in Beaver? It is. It's in the little town of Beaver

on this. We have this main street that's speaking of Hallmark that really does feel

like Hallmark. Let me back up and say this. It's so quintessential, you know, like

small town America that there are these drone shots of like the town square and

there's like brick streets and these little shops and someone was telling me like,

oh, I was watching a true crime documentary and did you know that they use that

photo for like a ton of towns and cities across the country to depict small town

but it's not real. It's, I mean, it's beaver, it's a real photo, but they're using

it in true crime for the different towns. Is that not hilarious? She said she was

asking something that was like in Illinois and she was like, wait a minute, that's

beaver. Okay, so that's a side note just to paint the picture of this town.

So her store carries jelly cats, which are, you know, to my best knowledge,

a stuffed animal. Okay. That's all I've got for you. It's a stuffed animal. Cause

she started telling me, you know, how popular they are and they sell out and

there's a waitlist and there's a line of people. And then she told me the price

and I said, excuse me, what like a small stuffed animal. I want to,

I don't quote me. It's like maybe $55. Yes. Yes. It's about $60. They were in New

York this summer. A small one, right? The biggest one they sell, they have this

giant octopus in the store right now and it's a thousand dollars. It's a stuff. I

just want to be clear. This is a stuffed animal. Okay. It's not like a motorized

stuffed animal. It's not an AI stuffed animal. It's not a real octopus. It is like

a stuffed octopus. So she's trying to explain to me just like how,

I don't know, the insanity. She loves them. She actually has them. She partakes in

this madness. She said there was this grandmother that came in that wanted to buy

first she wanted to buy all of the different bunny rabbits. And then she started

just buying all of them because she was using these jelly cats to potty train her

granddaughter. And every time she went to the bathroom, she got a jelly cat. And in

Ella was saying, M &Ms for my kids one, my kids got one M &M. You go to bathroom,

you get get one Eminem and so Ella told her this story. This woman is prominent in

our area, owns a very good business, but obviously so she's buying jelly cats and

Ella said it would be nothing for her to ring up $1 ,000 bill on several of them,

you know, and they fight over them. These, these people come in and they stand in

line if there's a limited release and apparently I just found this part out.

Apparently their faces are hand sewn. I don't know about the rest of them, but the

faces are. So they're all different. So she has a client who says to her, Oh, did

you get the avocado in? Could you in LSA? Yes, we have 10 of them.

Could you send me photos of all of them so I can pick the face that I want?

Excuse me? What? Yeah, So this is, this is like the next level of the level.

And then there was this jelly cat was going to raise their prices and it's always

limited always. They only offer them in certain stores they have, you have to be a

partner with them. So in our little town, there's only her store is the only store

that has them. And you can get them, you can get some of them online. It's just,

it's this whole conspiracy, Nicole. It's just the craziest thing and they've done a

masterful job at marketing and messaging.

And so when I learned about all of this, there's something you should know about

me. In my daily life, always, every day, every minute of every day, I am evaluating

things like against our businesses, photography. And I'm just always finding a

parallel. Like, well, how does that relate to what we do? Oh, that's so interesting.

I just look for business lessons and everything. And, you know, you have this,

sorry, I'll let you tell your jelly cat story, but I just think that they are

masters at this marketing. So what happened for you? Well, hold on. No, I just

randomly looked up, I was like jelly cat, jelly cat hand sewn, but then, you know,

how Google has like random little questions. So it says what's the rarest one and

it can rarity subjective, but bashful money imaging in 2011. So this has been going

on for quite some time. It's one of the most legendary and highly sought after due

to its ultra limited UK release. Okay, but anyway, why are jelly cats so expensive

now? They're expensive due to the brand's commitment to using premium, luxuriously

soft materials, and adhering to strict safety and quality standards, which increase

production costs, as well as emphasizing ethical manufacturing. So they're not making

it like low quality as possible, kind of like looking in our photography business

and like I'm choosing to sell Guild Canvas. I'm like, that is by far the most

expensive artwork I've ever Um, but it is elevating my brand and my experience and

it's at a premium price. Um, so anyway, so that's just a little bit about jelly

cats. So hold on. So they're ethically sourcing materials in order to create

legendary bunny rabbits. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I mean,

I think this also goes to a piece, which I've mentioned before too, that If you

feel strongly for a certain value, bring it into your brand like I'm currently

redoing my photography website right now and I'm like you can bet your bottom dollar

that I am bringing in like I run a nonprofit sustainability environmental you know

protection wildlife conservation is important to me and I'm actually going to use the

you know, 10 % of their sale go to the conservation fund. Um, so like those kinds

of things can, if somebody comes and checks out a couple different pet photographers

and they have those same values, well, 100 % they're choosing me. You know,

so, so lead into that is what I'm saying, you know, okay, we need to talk about

this, this particular point at length in another episode because there's more to

this. But I'm reading a book called Stories That Stick Right Now by Kindra, I think

her haul, Kindra Hall. I first came across her in Success Magazine. I used to read

her columns. But anyway, she teaches about stories. And what you're describing is the

value and the purpose story. And sharing that creates a connection that is worth a

lot, lot, lot more money in the eyes of the client than,

you know, I am just a pet photographer, which there's nothing wrong with. Okay. So

don't mishear me. But when you connect this to your value and purpose story,

then you've just increased your profit margin significantly. It's also a differentiator

because I bet every pet photographer has the value and purpose of, I want to

capture lifelong memories of these animals that are not with us for long enough.

Like we all do that. That's not making you special from other pet photographers. We

are a family photographer. I want to capture this moment in time with your kids at

this level. Like everyone's doing that. What else? What else can you add to

differentiate yourself from the rest of the market? We will explore this. Okay. Let

me finish the book. I'm about halfway through. through. I'm gonna write this down as

a future topic right now. Capturing value driven. Yeah,

there's different types of stories like the founder story and the value story, etc.

And I am finding it fascinating. And whenever I read a lot of books and whenever I

find a concept like this that I really love, the first thing I do is talk about

it with you and then I teach it in elevate. I love it. Yeah. Awesome. Okay.

So back to jelly cats. I mean, we could this conversation, this is why I love like

finding these random little things in real life because they lead to so many

different conversations that are directly pertinent to what we do. Okay,

so we talked about what the jelly cat is. So the jelly cat and diner, I believe

there's one in London, New York, that might be it. maybe there's a third one

somewhere.

And it is an FAO Schwartz, and it is a little, it's probably the size of my

office, it is not large. It is a little like diner,

you know, so they like, you know, build out a little diner kind of stage thing.

And when you have your appointment, you come, you get your ticket, you wait in

line, you choose which 60 to God knows how much plush animal you're going to buy

or plush food. It's like, I'm going to get a waffle. I'm going to get a jelly cat

waffle. Then you walk up to the diner and there's two actors,

actresses that are over the top. It's pretty amusing and they cook your food and

then they wrap it up like a to -go box diner and then you go and pay a hundred

dollars. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yes. I'm just picking up on the fact that

this is not actual food. No. It's a stuffed animal. Okay.

Okay. This is instead of just taking it off the shelf, you make an appointment for

them to pretend cook it and wrap it up like a to go. Okay. Have mercy on my

soul. When you first said jelly cat diner, I thought, Oh, you're actually like

getting lunch and then you can buy jelly cat. No, no, no. So here's homework for

all of us. We might actually need to pause this. We're going to have to pause this

recording. And you need to Google real quick, Heather, what the jelly cat diner is

like.

Okay. And so we're going to pause. You guys Google this too, unless you're driving,

then remember to do it later. But we'll be right back. - All right, Heather, what

did you think? - Okay, so I looked this up, I'm on their website, but I also

watched a YouTube video on this and I am actually dead. This, I, they are so

creative. I love it. People are so over their top marketers with their ideas.

So first of all, I was watching the Yes.

He was preparing the amusable Fran pancakes and he had them it the stuffed animal.

Let's be clear in a frying pan. And he was like flipping it like you would flip

pancakes. And then he's telling this whole story. And then he, he gets like the,

the paper and wraps it and the sticker has the young lady's name on it. And again,

still just talking and telling the story, and it's like so over the top,

and it is brilliant. And so I want to read, just in case anyone wonders if it's

worth it, well, just know that every item is stuffed 100 % full of joy,

and each meal includes a jelly cat, a musible, plush food item of your choice,

Exclusive enamel pin in the shape of that item, an exclusive sticker sheet,

gift packaging personalized with your name, a ready for takeout, it's ready in a

reusable tote. $70 is these certain jelly cats and then $40,

you can get one of the pickles or a hard boiled egg or a coffee cup, a stuffed

animal, let's be clear. And then you can add items on. Are you kidding me?

I have never heard of such a thing. So here's the other crazy part.

With this, I was planning the trip and my sister -in -law mentioned that my niece

wanted to go to the jelly cat diner. And so then I was like, Oh, okay, I mean,

how hard can reservations be?

Heather they are immediately filled as soon as they are released of course they are

so then I looked and I'm like Okay, they're released whatever four weeks before this

and that so I told my sister -in -law. She's like no really it's it's it's fine

We'll just walk by and see it. We don't need an appointment like okay Also because

it's like $70 for a stuffed pancake. Oh my gosh so The The entire experience,

I was just absolutely floored and I thought it was, there's just so many pieces

from the scarcity that, I mean, you can't just walk in and say, oh,

I wanna buy a pancake and go up there and have them cook it. Like, no, no, you

have to have an appointment to buy the pancake. Yes, you can go buy it and just

check it out, but they're not gonna cook it. You're not gonna get the pin. They're

not gonna wrap it up and here's the other piece too. All right, even though they're

using ethical Manufacturing and premium materials What's what's their cost of goods

sold in that stuffed plushie? It's not even a stuffed animal. What do you call it

in that stuffed food?

Yeah, yeah, that's a sticker sheet and a little enamel pin like Yeah,

So there's there's a lot of lessons here and people are clamoring to purchase it. I

mean and spend a lot of money like save their money, save their money. I'm thinking

teenage girls that come into Ella's store that are saving up their money in order

to buy these jelly cats, which by the way, my knowledge on this is somewhat

limited. But my understanding is that jelly cat much Canon and Nikon,

by the way, dictate the prices that their affiliates or partners are allowed to sell

at. So my understanding, okay, is that it's 50 % so they're sold,

they pay 50 % of what they list out. So if something is $10, they pay five for

it. This is the store. Wow. Okay. So if Jelly Cat is selling something at thing at

five dollars, you know, let's make that real. They're selling there for 50. Right.

Wait, jelly cat selling where, where is jelly cat selling it for five? Are you from

the wholesale side or the store? Like where? So let's say, let's do a real one

because some of them are around 50. So it's just ease math. So if the store has

it for 50, they're probably that store is probably paying 25 to get it in and so

they're making a 50 % profit the store is just actually fairly good I think for

retail. Oh amazing. Oh my gosh And and they all know it so like that you want to

be a jelly cat partner because of the scarcity because of the profit margin All of

it is good. All of it is good. That's right. It's scarcity on who can sell it

even. Oh majorly so So they Um, a radius and a hand selection about who can sell

it and there's a certain relationship that they have. They take it very seriously.

You have to be in good standing with them. You have to order a certain amount.

It's like all kinds of rules because they can, they can do that. So if they sell

it wholesale for $25, the retailer listed at 50, what, what could jelly cats cost

of goods be on that $25 item. It's for sure less than 50%.

Oh, 100%. Yeah. So I don't know, 10, 20. So is it even with good materials?

Is it costing them $5 or $10 to produce that, then sell it for 25 and then

retailer sells it for 50? Hey, listen, I love it all. I'm here for it. It's just

fascinating to me that they created this level of stuffed animal mania.

I've just never seen anything like it. And I think it's brilliant. And I think that

there are two types of people. Okay, there's always shades of gray, but I love

this. I think it's brilliant. How could we lean into this or learn from this? But

there are some people that are really going to hate this, you know, that are like,

this isn't right, or there's something wrong here. Or or, I don't know,

they just have a different view of, I don't know, the market or how this should

work. I think my thoughts are good for them. I mean - What lesson is there here

for us? Right. What lesson? The companies are built for profit. What lesson is there

here for us and how can we translate that in a way that works for you? You know?

Yeah. But I did hear one of my coaches say, this is not recent, it. This has been

years now. She asks someone, is it okay to be overpaid for something?

And that like, that question could stop you for a minute and really depending on

your money philosophy, you know, you'd be like, Oh, what does overpaid mean? Right?

According to whom? So, okay, what, what does that mean? And she's talking to this

person about, you know, what you can charge for your services or what you want to

charge or the value and all of that. But then she upped the ante and she said,

"I believe personally that it is okay to be excessively overpaid." Oh,

excessively. Yeah, she's the type of person that likes, I don't think she likes to

do it. I think it's just who she is. So, she likes to trigger people. Well,

I mean, when you start to do that though, it becomes really clear if you have a

thought about it.

Instantly, she uncovered this was in some sort of group class or training I was in.

I can't remember. But so the first question was, is it okay to be overpaid? That

stopped a lot of people in their tracks. But when she said excessively, she said,

I believe it is, do you, do you think it's okay to be excessively overpaid? I

mean, I'm Hawking probably 90 % or more of that room said no, no. But the

interesting thing is the people who were like the 10 % that might very much the

minority. This is interesting. Their businesses are thriving and very successful. This

is interesting, not that the others aren't because you can be, but I, I didn't

realize this, but when I photographed weddings, I had that thought that it was okay

to be overpaid. But according to some people, not to me, because I was doing the

work, right? Again, go ahead. I also agree. I mean,

what are your thoughts? No, 100%. This, gosh, I say 100 % a lot. Sorry, guys.

Anyway, when I was, this reminds me of when we were selling our house in Florida,

right? And I moved to Florida 2003, after he was done with vet school.

And In 2005, we ended up moving to Pittsburgh. We had built a house,

so we moved to Florida in 2003. That house, we paid $196 ,000 for.

We sold it for, it was under contract for $332,

but appraised for like $312, so we ended up selling it for like 322 because the

bank and whatever the mortgage want to do something that didn't appraise for but

meanwhile my whole point for that was like well we have a buyer willing to pay 332

so that house is worth 332 right so are you ever overpaid - Right.

- You are simply saying, this is the price. You're putting it out into the market.

And as long as you're not coercing or forcing people, blackmailing them to purchase

from you, they are making the choice. If that is a price that they feel confident

in, that they agree with, that they see the value for whatever that price is. And

$1 ,000 to one person could be a very different experience than $1 ,000 to another

person and it is not our job to be like, "Oh, where is that land for you?" It's

our job to be like, "This is what this is what this costs. This is the value that

I can bring to the table. Are you interested?" Period. And it's very clean. It's

just like this is what you're saying is this is the value and if you wish to

purchase just this value, like the house, the jelly cat. Oh, also in Ella's store,

they sell nest candles. So like the biggest one is like $600 and people will come

in and buy three of them. And beaver. Yes. Well, this is another lesson.

And that is, I don't care where you're located, there are people that have money to

spend. Because if you looked at beaver on the socio economic graphs or studies,

It's very low. It's very low, but there are pockets of money as evidenced by how

well this gift shop does. Enough pockets of money that that, that gift shop can

stay in business. Well, exactly. My dad said when she first started working here,

you know, my dad's 80 and he's like, well, we'll see how long that lasts. It's so

expensive and what, and there's the internet, you know, and there's just a component

doesn't see, he doesn't understand about this value and the scarcity. He's not their

target market. The, the target market, the emotions of spending. And when he said

that Ella was a little offended on behalf of the owner, and she was like, well,

he's been there for six years and he does very well. Because he knew, he knew that

in a market like that, targeting the middle was not a good idea. The middle is

where they're going to be like, Oh, I can get that cheaper online. Exactly. That

is, that's your, that's your photography clients are like, Oh, I'm just going to

print these out myself. And like the kind of DIY, which I'm not saying there

shouldn't be a market to serve those people there. There can be. But if you are

looking to be a high end photographer, creating beautiful boutique artwork, having

multi thousand dollar sales, you're not playing in that, in that world, you are

playing in the, this is full service. You're here for the experience. You're here

for me to help guide you to get exactly what you want. Like someone can go into

that store and part of what they're paying for is probably like, I have an 11 year

old niece. What, what, oh, get them the jelly cat, this and that. This is what all

the kids that like, they're paying a little bit for that experience and that, That

knowledge to help steer them to exactly what they will love and will benefit them.

Yeah, which is a certain face on a pickle

They they're willing to pay for that pickle because my daughter will send them 10

photos of the different faces Okay, this this doesn't have to make sense to you. It

just is you know, so it's like is it okay to be excessively overpaid? Well, I

think I think I have an excessive amount of value. So yeah, I guess it is. Like I

just don't let my head get all turned upside down with this, where a lot of us do

because of money stories and our philosophy and all that, and it's fine, that's

fine. But if you come into Elevate, we actually have two courses in Elevate on

money. I need to talk about them more because they're really good. We have the

wealthy photographer in the empowered course where about, you know, when you see

things like this, what does it bring up for you? If I said, is it okay to be

overpaid? What did that, and it's okay, no judgment, you know, whatever it brought

up for you is like, Oh, okay, that, that makes sense as to why I hesitate to

multiply my cost of goods to get a certain amount. You speaking of which on that

recent episode with the three people in elevate that had $8 ,000 sales and Jessica

said her cost of goods on that sale was 7 % single digits.

That means to some people, if you looked at the math on paper, some people might

say that's excessive. So especially the industry benchmark is 35 % cost 35%,

sorry, 25 % cost and she did seven. Like I was talking to another later this

morning, who just had her highest sale of 14 ,000 and she said her cost of goods

sold, uh, she would have to look it up and she said it's like a couple thousand.

She said it was like nothing. It was just, it was just mostly profit.

So all of you guys out here listening right now, what's going through your head

right now when you hear those sales and those cost of goods sold, are you like,

that's amazing. I want to do that too. Are you having some sort of judgment and

don't have judgment on your judgment? Actually thank your, thank your judgment for

saying, oh, thank you, brain, for showing me that I have thoughts around this that

I might want to look at. Yes.

Yeah. I might want to jump into coach week or the next fast track coaching and get

coached by Heather .com and talk about those thoughts. Yeah. Well, it's okay if you

have the judgment. It's just, it's giving you, it's shining a light on something you

might, you might want to work on, but don't judge yourself for having the judgment.

That's, that's actually really important. Just, you know, notice it and get curious,

like, because honestly, years ago, things like this would have bothered me. Oh,

remember our Birkin bag conversations? Yes. Where I would have been like, I can't,

I still don't understand the bags. No, I would. I did. I will, I will spend that

much money on horses, but I would not spend that much money on a bag because of

what you value. I just, I just think if you can say this from a clean, healthy

place, that it's okay to be overpaid, it's okay to be excessively overpaid because

it's actually the term is meaningless. It doesn't, it doesn't mean anything because

of what you said earlier because the lady walking in to buy the jelly cats for her

granddaughter has a lot, lot, lot, lot of money, so none of this is excessive to

her or overpaid. But you, you know, if you are struggling and your daughter wants a

$55 stuffed animal, you're like, no, we're going to Walmart, which reminds me, what

was this in your time frame, the cabbage patch kids? It was my mom somehow knew

someone that was able to get one. and me being like complete anti doll always as a

child. I was like, okay, great. Now, oh look it stuffed bald eagle. Like,

I was I just I just wanted animals and I was not interested. So yes, I had one.

And my mom's like, at least my mom actually found us out recently, it was a client

of hers ended up having some and like, was able to like gave one to my mom that

she then gave me. Because she's like, Oh, no, I would not have gone with the

madness for that. So it was the same kind of thing. And you must have been rich

because I was in fifth grade, and I wanted one so, so,

so badly. And we could have had mine. Yeah, I wish I would have known you.

We did not have money for those things. And my dear sweet mom, You know, just went

to like, I don't know, it wasn't, it wasn't Walmart. It was whatever the store was.

Kmart maybe. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I believe it was and bought like the knockoff

version. And I remember, I remember at that age. So what are you, maybe 10 where I

was so conflicted because I knew, I knew I should be grateful and say thank you,

which I did, I'm sure I was probably forced to, but I remember that that was one

of those times where I was so, so disappointed because I didn't get the real thing.

And that obviously has stuck with me. I couldn't get a real I couldn't afford there

was no birth certificate. Okay, there was no signature on the bum. Okay, it didn't

smell the same. It was just like this cheap knock off and my mom was trying and I

was I probably was pretty, I'm sure I said thank you, but I probably was pretty

ungrateful. And I think, oh my gosh, and that's where it started. I don't know, who

knows, but. - We all have, we all have those things. - Issues, right. - Yeah, oh my

gosh. Well, this has been a super fun conversation.

Yeah, I love it.

You guys, what is coming up? This is gonna come out next week. When's your next

fast track coaching? - I think it's in a couple of three years, October week.

Yeah. If you go to www .getcoachbyheather .com, you can join me for those.

I will just help you in any way that I can. I will answer any question about your

photography business and help you work through it. I don't think there's anything we

can't accomplish together. You know, all you have to do is talk to me and I will

help you and we'll go from there. Yeah. And if you're too nervous to talk to

Heather on the first time she is pretty terrifying.

You can also come in. What, what do we call it? Second hand coaching? You can have

my proxy. Yeah. Yeah. Because you can, you can pick up on so much just by watching

others get coached and actually sometimes it's more helpful. I know in the group

that I'm in, I'll hear someone get coached and I'll have this light bulb moment

where I'm like, Whoa, I didn't even realize I had that same issue, maybe a little

bit differently. And then watching it from the outside, I'm like, Oh, okay, it's so

much easier to see in someone else than yourself. So second hand coaching,

coaching by proxy, all of it, I would encourage you to speak to me. We've had

people in elevate, say, you know, after they talked to me, they made $1 ,000 from a

conversation. So if you knew that you could make thousands of dollars and all you

had to do was talk to me? I think I would go for it. I'm fairly compassionate for

sure. Alright guys check it out. We'll see you next week.