August 26, 2025 • 10 mins
In this episode of the Wedding Atelier Podcast, host Alora discusses how photographers can avoid being ghosted and attract dream clients by leveraging their unique artist story.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the WeddingAtelier Podcast.
(00:02):
In this episode, we're gonna betalking about how to never get
ghosted again, So you canattract dream couples who see
you as the only option in thewedding industry.
Maybe your prices aren't theproblem.
Maybe your photos aren't theproblem, the problem could be
that right now you blend in withevery photographer in your
market and if they can't see whyyou're different, they're gonna
(00:25):
ghost you or worse book someoneelse for less.
Or I've seen it where theybooked someone for more.
So how are we gonna fix this?
It's not necessarily, oh, I needto market more, or I need to buy
a new preset, or I need toupgrade my gear.
It's your artist story.
I'm gonna show you how to useyour artist story to make
yourself the only option foryour dream client.
(00:47):
But first, here's why mostphotographers struggle to stand
out.
I call this the bestie problembecause if clients see you as a
bestie, they're just gonnacompare you on price.
I know a lot of times asphotographers, we literally get
paid to be ourselves.
Use our creativity and sell thatas an experience, of course,
with all of our years ofindustry experience.
(01:08):
But at the end of the day,you're getting paid to be a
creative.
but when they don't see you assomebody who is a professional.
And they can get your lookanywhere else, and they don't
see anything really unique aboutwhat you have to offer.
They compare you to otherpeople.
Say, oh, your work looks likethis for cheaper.
That's no.
That means something needs tochange.
And you don't want couplescomparing you side by side with
(01:31):
somebody else's Instagram beinglike, oh, yeah, no.
They shoot the same poses.
They have the same edits.
They're basically the samephotographer.
One of'em is just priced morethan the other.
Nope.
That is not what we want.
And we don't want you competingwith somebody else that you
don't even know because you'reso afraid to put yourself out
there and really stand out.
Before I created the artiststory, I remember being
(01:51):
constantly price shopped.
I also remember people saying,oh, your work looks like this
person, but you're just so muchcheaper.
Oh my gosh.
That just gave me trauma allover again.
And I remember cringing on thecall like, oh, thanks for.
That and they would saysomething like, oh, we're just
no.
We're just so excited to bookwith you that we can, have this
(02:12):
look or we love your stylebetter, whatever.
But at the end of the day, I waslike they're getting a better
style for less because I'mcharging less.
That is not what I want myclients to say about me.
And so the first thing you'regonna learn how to do is lead
with yourself.
I know you probably thought Iwas gonna say something deep.
No, I want you to lead withyourself.
(02:32):
Like, why are you doing this?
Who are you anyway as aphotographer, I.
At least for me, and you canagree with me or disagree with
me, but when I picked up mycamera, I was ready for business
because I learned how to shootin manual.
I had a prime lens.
I had that nifty 50 thateverybody talked about, and then
(02:53):
I started comparing myself.
When I finally had theconfidence to go from$400 to
three K, I started comparingmyself because I was like, wait
a minute, these are the quoteunquote big leagues.
My work needs to look liketheirs.
If I could shoot like them, if Icould edit like them, I would be
happy.
And that's when it all started.
(03:13):
I got lost in the sauce for lackof better words, and I just
copied what I saw.
Instagram and Pinterest became acompeting machine.
And if you're cringing with meright now, because it's coming
from a place, been there.
But here's the thing.
When you finally lean into yourartist story, you are gonna stop
(03:34):
getting ghosted because you'regonna start leading with that
and not making your prices looklike a value stacked big, huge
deal.
And I'm gonna talk about priceslater because you know me I get
fired up about prices onlybecause I kept mine the same for
so long.
And I don't want you to make thesame mistakes that I did, which
is playing small for way toolong.
(03:54):
And then realizing once you takethe small steps to.
Do the thing that scares you themost, you realize, huh?
I could have been doing this allalong.
Why didn't I do this sooner?
That's what I'm gonna help youdo.
Okay?
I am no fluff all strategy anddata, but also 12 years of
wedding photography experience.
To be able to help you realizethat it's not as serious as you
(04:17):
think it is, and there are smallwins that you can make for
yourself.
There's small steps that you cantake that will help you overcome
all the drama, but in themeantime.
Maybe you need to figure outwhat your story is in the first
place.
And so this leads us to theartist story.
This is your entire methodthat's gonna reveal your unique
artistic identity, your values,why your work matters beyond the
(04:40):
images.
And so here is the framework.
It is your purpose, yourprocess, and your personality.
And we'll dive a little bit moreinto this in our masterclass,
September 23rd.
Make sure you sign up link inthe show notes.
So the purpose is your personalstyle, and your creative values.
That's it.
Your process is the experiencesthat you stand for.
(05:04):
And the process that gets youthere.
And then three, yourpersonality.
That is the one of a kindaspects that draw your dream
couples to you, because that'sgonna make you the only option.
If you can really tell us, ifyou can show us who you really
are strategically with astrategy in place, of course you
(05:26):
are just gonna attract them.
When your story is clear, thecouples are gonna stop asking
how much, and they're gonnastart asking, how do we book
you?
Are you available for this date?
The amount of times when I wasable to shift my entire business
to reflect my artist story.
I would have people saying, Ihope you're not booked yet.
(05:46):
And they would pitch me theirwedding.
They would say, this is where mywedding is.
This is the vibe, this is thecolors, this is my Pinterest
board.
I hope you're free on ourwedding day'cause we would love
to have you.
Whoa.
I went from charging three K andpeople either being like, yes,
we wanna book you'cause you'resuch a deal to I found somebody
for cheaper.
We'll get back to you to, oh mygosh, this is my wedding.
(06:09):
I need you to be available tobook it now.
Actually, that's what drove meto start my associate team
because I was turning away somany inquiries to where they
were like We wish we just hadyour look, even if it wasn't
you, like we would take whoeveryou trust.
And I was like, man, I'm justgonna start a team at this
point.
And if you're thinking toyourself, Hmm, I actually might
(06:30):
wanna start my own associateteam.
We have an associate team courseinside of Wedding Guttier, so
literally no worries, I got you.
So I'm gonna brag a little biton one of my students because
after working with Jen, she cameto me being like.
Fix my business.
Like we're doing good.
We're doing okay.
I'm scared to raise my prices.
I don't know who I am.
I don't know anything.
(06:51):
I went from, I just started, Istill have a nine to five to.
I am burnt out and I also don'tknow what I'm doing.
I dunno who I'm doing this foror why.
And so the two things that wedid immediately was came up with
her new prices and then wecreated her artist story and
that alone changed her life.
(07:12):
She is marketing like crazy.
She's showing up as herself.
She was like, Ugh, I don't wannashow up in Instagram stories.
Guess what?
Girl can't stop showing up onInstagram stories now because
she can really get behindherself.
She can get behind the processof her business, the purpose of
her business and herpersonality.
She can get behind her artiststory and it's working because
(07:34):
she's obviously turning awaybookings and having to raise her
prices constantly to the pointwhere she had to leave her nine
to five.
So it works, and this alone willbe the missing piece.
To keep you from having a blankcure serve before you post on
Instagram or opening up a blogpost about a recent wedding.
You're obsessed with not knowingwhat to write.
We give you all of thosetemplates all I need as your
(07:57):
artist story and the formulascomplete themselves.
We even have custom GPTs thatwill literally write it for you,
but you have to give it yourartist story because that's
something that chat GBT can'tmake up.
I believe that chat, GBT is anassistant.
I don't want chat GBT writinganything for me that I did not
come up with myself.
Okay?
I think that can get dangerousto where you just say, Hey,
(08:20):
write 30 posts for me.
And it doesn't sound like you,it doesn't look like you.
It's just not, it's not genuineand it just feels icky.
But I can do another episode onChad GBT and how I feel but we
don't do that.
Everything is an integrity, itis 100% tailored to you, and
that's why they're gonna wannabook you at the end of the day
because you're gonna be withthem all day and they're gonna
be following up with you allyear or however long they get in
(08:43):
contact with you before thewedding.
Could be three months, could bethree years, who knows?
And the whole point is whencouples connect with you.
And they connect emotionally notonly to your work, but to you
the photographer.
That's when you go from beinganother photographer to a
friender, and that's what makesthem want to invest and that's
what makes them specificallywant to invest.
(09:03):
With you.
Okay, so I'm gonna give you acouple of journaling prompts.
Now, this is not the wholeartist story because it's
actually 15 pages long.
Okay?
Don't at me because all of mystudents thank me after they
finish it.
But I'm gonna give you journalprompts so you can start getting
those wheels turning with yourown artist story today.
Number one, what do I wantcouples to feel when they see my
(09:24):
work?
Two, what moments do I lovecapturing most and why?
All right, now get to work andfeel free to DM me,'cause I
wanna know what you come upwith.
Okay?
If this resonates with you, ifyou're like, oh my gosh, Lord, I
need more, give me more.
You need to sign up.
You need to sign up for my freemasterclass.
How to book 10 K Weddings,September 23rd at 12:00 PM
Eastern, and only those on thewait list will get the replay if
(09:48):
you want couples to see you asthe only option.
It's not about having thecheapest package or the most
followers or the best portfolio.
It is about making them feellike there's nobody else who
could tell their story the waythat you can.
And that's what the artist storyunlocks.
And we will help you build yourstogether inside of Wedding
Atelier.
So join the wait list for themasterclass and I will see you
(10:12):
in the next episode.
Welcome back to the WeddingAtelier Podcast.
(00:02):
In this episode, we're gonna betalking about how to never get
ghosted again, So you canattract dream couples who see
you as the only option in thewedding industry.
Maybe your prices aren't theproblem.
Maybe your photos aren't theproblem, the problem could be
that right now you blend in withevery photographer in your
market and if they can't see whyyou're different, they're gonna
(00:25):
ghost you or worse book someoneelse for less.
Or I've seen it where theybooked someone for more.
So how are we gonna fix this?
It's not necessarily, oh, I needto market more, or I need to buy
a new preset, or I need toupgrade my gear.
It's your artist story.
I'm gonna show you how to useyour artist story to make
yourself the only option foryour dream client.
(00:47):
But first, here's why mostphotographers struggle to stand
out.
I call this the bestie problembecause if clients see you as a
bestie, they're just gonnacompare you on price.
I know a lot of times asphotographers, we literally get
paid to be ourselves.
Use our creativity and sell thatas an experience, of course,
with all of our years ofindustry experience.
(01:08):
But at the end of the day,you're getting paid to be a
creative.
but when they don't see you assomebody who is a professional.
And they can get your lookanywhere else, and they don't
see anything really unique aboutwhat you have to offer.
They compare you to otherpeople.
Say, oh, your work looks likethis for cheaper.
That's no.
That means something needs tochange.
And you don't want couplescomparing you side by side with
(01:31):
somebody else's Instagram beinglike, oh, yeah, no.
They shoot the same poses.
They have the same edits.
They're basically the samephotographer.
One of'em is just priced morethan the other.
Nope.
That is not what we want.
And we don't want you competingwith somebody else that you
don't even know because you'reso afraid to put yourself out
there and really stand out.
Before I created the artiststory, I remember being
(01:51):
constantly price shopped.
I also remember people saying,oh, your work looks like this
person, but you're just so muchcheaper.
Oh my gosh.
That just gave me trauma allover again.
And I remember cringing on thecall like, oh, thanks for.
That and they would saysomething like, oh, we're just
no.
We're just so excited to bookwith you that we can, have this
(02:12):
look or we love your stylebetter, whatever.
But at the end of the day, I waslike they're getting a better
style for less because I'mcharging less.
That is not what I want myclients to say about me.
And so the first thing you'regonna learn how to do is lead
with yourself.
I know you probably thought Iwas gonna say something deep.
No, I want you to lead withyourself.
(02:32):
Like, why are you doing this?
Who are you anyway as aphotographer, I.
At least for me, and you canagree with me or disagree with
me, but when I picked up mycamera, I was ready for business
because I learned how to shootin manual.
I had a prime lens.
I had that nifty 50 thateverybody talked about, and then
(02:53):
I started comparing myself.
When I finally had theconfidence to go from$400 to
three K, I started comparingmyself because I was like, wait
a minute, these are the quoteunquote big leagues.
My work needs to look liketheirs.
If I could shoot like them, if Icould edit like them, I would be
happy.
And that's when it all started.
(03:13):
I got lost in the sauce for lackof better words, and I just
copied what I saw.
Instagram and Pinterest became acompeting machine.
And if you're cringing with meright now, because it's coming
from a place, been there.
But here's the thing.
When you finally lean into yourartist story, you are gonna stop
(03:34):
getting ghosted because you'regonna start leading with that
and not making your prices looklike a value stacked big, huge
deal.
And I'm gonna talk about priceslater because you know me I get
fired up about prices onlybecause I kept mine the same for
so long.
And I don't want you to make thesame mistakes that I did, which
is playing small for way toolong.
(03:54):
And then realizing once you takethe small steps to.
Do the thing that scares you themost, you realize, huh?
I could have been doing this allalong.
Why didn't I do this sooner?
That's what I'm gonna help youdo.
Okay?
I am no fluff all strategy anddata, but also 12 years of
wedding photography experience.
To be able to help you realizethat it's not as serious as you
(04:17):
think it is, and there are smallwins that you can make for
yourself.
There's small steps that you cantake that will help you overcome
all the drama, but in themeantime.
Maybe you need to figure outwhat your story is in the first
place.
And so this leads us to theartist story.
This is your entire methodthat's gonna reveal your unique
artistic identity, your values,why your work matters beyond the
(04:40):
images.
And so here is the framework.
It is your purpose, yourprocess, and your personality.
And we'll dive a little bit moreinto this in our masterclass,
September 23rd.
Make sure you sign up link inthe show notes.
So the purpose is your personalstyle, and your creative values.
That's it.
Your process is the experiencesthat you stand for.
(05:04):
And the process that gets youthere.
And then three, yourpersonality.
That is the one of a kindaspects that draw your dream
couples to you, because that'sgonna make you the only option.
If you can really tell us, ifyou can show us who you really
are strategically with astrategy in place, of course you
(05:26):
are just gonna attract them.
When your story is clear, thecouples are gonna stop asking
how much, and they're gonnastart asking, how do we book
you?
Are you available for this date?
The amount of times when I wasable to shift my entire business
to reflect my artist story.
I would have people saying, Ihope you're not booked yet.
(05:46):
And they would pitch me theirwedding.
They would say, this is where mywedding is.
This is the vibe, this is thecolors, this is my Pinterest
board.
I hope you're free on ourwedding day'cause we would love
to have you.
Whoa.
I went from charging three K andpeople either being like, yes,
we wanna book you'cause you'resuch a deal to I found somebody
for cheaper.
We'll get back to you to, oh mygosh, this is my wedding.
(06:09):
I need you to be available tobook it now.
Actually, that's what drove meto start my associate team
because I was turning away somany inquiries to where they
were like We wish we just hadyour look, even if it wasn't
you, like we would take whoeveryou trust.
And I was like, man, I'm justgonna start a team at this
point.
And if you're thinking toyourself, Hmm, I actually might
(06:30):
wanna start my own associateteam.
We have an associate team courseinside of Wedding Guttier, so
literally no worries, I got you.
So I'm gonna brag a little biton one of my students because
after working with Jen, she cameto me being like.
Fix my business.
Like we're doing good.
We're doing okay.
I'm scared to raise my prices.
I don't know who I am.
I don't know anything.
(06:51):
I went from, I just started, Istill have a nine to five to.
I am burnt out and I also don'tknow what I'm doing.
I dunno who I'm doing this foror why.
And so the two things that wedid immediately was came up with
her new prices and then wecreated her artist story and
that alone changed her life.
(07:12):
She is marketing like crazy.
She's showing up as herself.
She was like, Ugh, I don't wannashow up in Instagram stories.
Guess what?
Girl can't stop showing up onInstagram stories now because
she can really get behindherself.
She can get behind the processof her business, the purpose of
her business and herpersonality.
She can get behind her artiststory and it's working because
(07:34):
she's obviously turning awaybookings and having to raise her
prices constantly to the pointwhere she had to leave her nine
to five.
So it works, and this alone willbe the missing piece.
To keep you from having a blankcure serve before you post on
Instagram or opening up a blogpost about a recent wedding.
You're obsessed with not knowingwhat to write.
We give you all of thosetemplates all I need as your
(07:57):
artist story and the formulascomplete themselves.
We even have custom GPTs thatwill literally write it for you,
but you have to give it yourartist story because that's
something that chat GBT can'tmake up.
I believe that chat, GBT is anassistant.
I don't want chat GBT writinganything for me that I did not
come up with myself.
Okay?
I think that can get dangerousto where you just say, Hey,
(08:20):
write 30 posts for me.
And it doesn't sound like you,it doesn't look like you.
It's just not, it's not genuineand it just feels icky.
But I can do another episode onChad GBT and how I feel but we
don't do that.
Everything is an integrity, itis 100% tailored to you, and
that's why they're gonna wannabook you at the end of the day
because you're gonna be withthem all day and they're gonna
be following up with you allyear or however long they get in
(08:43):
contact with you before thewedding.
Could be three months, could bethree years, who knows?
And the whole point is whencouples connect with you.
And they connect emotionally notonly to your work, but to you
the photographer.
That's when you go from beinganother photographer to a
friender, and that's what makesthem want to invest and that's
what makes them specificallywant to invest.
(09:03):
With you.
Okay, so I'm gonna give you acouple of journaling prompts.
Now, this is not the wholeartist story because it's
actually 15 pages long.
Okay?
Don't at me because all of mystudents thank me after they
finish it.
But I'm gonna give you journalprompts so you can start getting
those wheels turning with yourown artist story today.
Number one, what do I wantcouples to feel when they see my
(09:24):
work?
Two, what moments do I lovecapturing most and why?
All right, now get to work andfeel free to DM me,'cause I
wanna know what you come upwith.
Okay?
If this resonates with you, ifyou're like, oh my gosh, Lord, I
need more, give me more.
You need to sign up.
You need to sign up for my freemasterclass.
How to book 10 K Weddings,September 23rd at 12:00 PM
Eastern, and only those on thewait list will get the replay if
(09:48):
you want couples to see you asthe only option.
It's not about having thecheapest package or the most
followers or the best portfolio.
It is about making them feellike there's nobody else who
could tell their story the waythat you can.
And that's what the artist storyunlocks.
And we will help you build yourstogether inside of Wedding
Atelier.
So join the wait list for themasterclass and I will see you
(10:12):
in the next episode.
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