Sales is the moment where everything you’ve built in your business comes together: your pricing, your client experience, your products, and your belief in what you’re offering, all in one conversation with your client. If photography sales still feels like the hardest part of running your business, you’re not alone, and this episode is worth a listen.
This week, we’re pulling four conversations from the TMA archives, each one offering a different piece of what it actually takes to sell more artwork, albums, and wall art with confidence. You’ll hear from Marie Elizabeth on the mindset shift that makes selling possible in the first place, Jacqueline Benet on the virtual IPS strategy that took her average from $950 to $2,800, Aga Maru from Pic-Time on the smallest first step that changes how you sell prints, and Lacee Smith on the year she invested in education and landed a $7,000 sale.
The Mindset Shift Behind Confident Selling
Marie Elizabeth, one of TMA’s mentors, started her business charging $99 a session while working as a teacher, and she’ll be the first to say that asking for money never came naturally. What changed wasn’t her personality, it was her perspective. She reminds herself that she’s truly serving her clients, that their photos will only grow in value over time (unlike a car or a handbag), and that offering a full service experience lets her be creatively fulfilled while staying present for her own kids.
She also pointed out something worth sitting with: talk around money is genuinely harder for women, who haven’t had generations of examples of asking for what they’re worth. One practical tool she leans on is affirmations. They might sound a little woo woo, but there’s real science behind how they can shift the neural pathways tied to confidence. As she put it: “I know I am truly serving my clients, and I focus more on what I’m giving them than what they’re paying me.”
Confidence in sales isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s a practice, and it’s one you can build even if it doesn’t come naturally yet.
The Systems That Multiply Your Sales Average
Jacqueline Benet left a PhD program in biomedical sciences to build her photography business full time, and one of her biggest turning points was switching from an all-inclusive pricing model to a la carte. The shift let clients decide for themselves how they wanted to preserve their images, whether that was framed wall art, an album, or digital files. She walks clients through a virtual IPS session (using Google Meet through her CRM) where they see their full gallery together in real time. The result: her average sale grew from $950 all-inclusive to roughly $2,800 a la carte.
Aga Maru, from TMA partner Pic-Time, shared a tip that’s simple but often overlooked: print your own work. Photographers who never see their own images in print, she noted, are selling from theory instead of experience. Once you’ve held your own prints, you sell them differently, and you have new content for your marketing along the way.
Aga also pointed to something small that makes a big difference with clients: simply asking how they imagine their images displayed after the shoot opens a conversation that takes the mental load off of them, and takes the pressure out of the word “sales.”
What Investing in Your Growth Can Do for Your Bottom Line
Lacee Smith’s story ties the whole episode together. Each year of her business, she’s focused on a different area of growth: camera skills, posing, SEO, and this year, IPS education. That focus paid off in a big way. Her client average went from $1,200 in January to over $2,500, and in one especially memorable week, she closed three sales over $2,000 each, including a $7,000 sale, her biggest to date.
When asked what her secret sauce was, Lacee pointed back to a 10 year plan she built when she first started, one milestone and one focus area at a time. “It’s a slow burn. You have to work for it and doing everything as a stair step, just taking one step at a time. You can’t just jump five steps and get to the end.”
That’s the thread running through all four conversations. Confidence, systems, small habits, and consistent investment in your own growth all compound over time. None of these photographers found one silver bullet. They built their sales strategy the same way they built their businesses: step by step, with support along the way.
Listen and Learn More
Marie Elizabeth, Jacqueline Benet, Aga Maru, and Lacee Smith each brought a different layer to the conversation, but together they paint a full picture of what it takes to sell your work with confidence and integrity. This episode is worth a listen for anyone who wants a fuller sales strategy, not just a pricing update.
Inside The Motherhood Anthology membership, you’ll find mentors like Marie Elizabeth going deeper on pricing and sales mindset all year long, alongside live coaching calls, a monthly marketing suite, and a private community of photographers working through these same questions right alongside you. Learn more and join at themotherhoodanthology.com.
The Motherhood Anthology is a community and educational resource for photographers who want a profitable and sustainable business they love. With 15+ expert mentors and 7+ years of proven content, TMA helps portrait photographers build confident, thriving businesses through monthly education, mentorship, and a supportive community of 700+ members.
