Hey friend, welcome back to the podcast. Okay. I have a truth bomb for you today, so buckle up'cause we're diving all the way in. In working with my alumni and people who book my intensivess, I keep getting asked, how do I stand out? How do I book higher end clients, and how do I make people actually choose me over everyone else? I'm so tired of feeling like second best, third best or worst of all them just leaving me an email saying, oh, we chose somebody else. But here's the thing, if you brand your entire business on you. You the secret sauce, you the brand, you become the competitive edge because you'll become incomparable, which is one of my favorite words if you haven't noticed. Not because you have a new camera, not because you bought a new preset and not because you found the trending audio on reels that actually took off. And if you did, congratulations. It's hard. In the club today, we're talking about the one thing that actually makes you. Ghost proof, booking proof, recession proof, algorithm proof, and that's your personal brand and your overall identity as an artist. So let's start with the lie that the industry has told us that your work alone will set you apart. If you're not booked, it's because you're not talented or you're not good enough. And yes, your work does matter and you should have top-notch gear and you should photograph somebody's wedding with the best of the best. Don't get me wrong, but the idea that you have to always focus on what everyone else is doing in order to be set apart in the industry as a lie, that you need to shoot film to be a luxury photographer is a lie. If I have the perfect this, if I upgrade that, if I shoot more of this, if I change my style to that, if I redo my website for the billionth time this year, then everything's gonna click. It's gonna happen for me. But the truth is you're trying to fix an identity problem with technical solutions. Like yes, if you do get the perfect preset, your pictures will be better. Does that necessarily mean you'll get more inquiries? No, and that's probably why it's not working because these things aren't the problem. It's that you, the person behind the camera, the human behind the lens. You haven't stepped up into your full identity as an artist yet. You're not showing people what makes you different. You're not showing your magic. And guess what? High-end couples can feel that. Okay, let's be very real for a second. Couples don't only choose you because of your portfolio and years of experience, and your talent, but they do remember how it felt to be around you. Your energy, your eye for emotion, your ability to make them feel seen and the way that you and you alone capture their story. That is your personal brand. That is your differentiator. That is the one thing that no one else can copy. And if it feels comfortable to hide behind trends or copying whoever has a hundred K followers right now. You're losing focus of the one thing that makes you you, the one thing that makes you unforgettable. You're hiding the thing that makes you incomparable. Let me tell you a story Years ago before I ever raised my prices, oof. How long ago was that? Before I ever had a signature style I remember, or before I ever booked high-end couples I had a consultation with a couple who told me something that literally changed my life, and this is something that happens to all of my alumni inside of Wedding Atelier because the first thing that we work on is your messaging and your artist story. They said. We've seen all these photographers. We've been on so many websites, so many Instagrams, but your work is what I've been looking for all along. I feel like your personality meshes with ours. We knew we wanted you from the get go, and then they repeated my brand words back to me. Your images feel like Vogue and editorial. They feel like a magazine, like your couples look like celebrities. But in that moment I realized, oh my gosh, the thing that I was so scared to do, which was mesh my style together with documentary meets editorial meets traditional. Is that I was the secret sauce all along and I was a serial rerender. I rebranded every six months to a year, and I changed my color palette. I changed my vibe, I changed my photos, I bought them Dark and moody, light and airy. All of the presets you can think of. I have them. I probably still have them, but at the end of the day. I always said, if I was myself and I put together a style that I, that doesn't exist at the time, didn't exist, nobody's going to connect with that. Nobody's gonna book that they want either or they want documentary, they want editorial, they want traditional posing. I can't beat all of those things at once. Can I? And guess what? When I did the dream, couples kept coming, me, myself, my signature style, my story, my perspective, my life, my personality, everything that I shared with them was what they wanted. And I realized that I wasn't that special. I wasn't the only person who thought like me. Actually, there was dozens and dozens that valued the same exact things as I did. And once I realized that everything shifted, my content changed, my brand changed my messaging, changed my confidence, changed my work, changed my booking, skyrocketed to the point where I had to have a wait list for the following year, and from then on, my business only came up. That's why I'm so passionate about artists understanding their own story because it really does change everything. Being yourself is the one thing that nobody can copy because every single thing that makes you, even if people try to copy your style, they still can't copy your personality, and if they try to copy your personality, they can't keep up with it for long because it's not theirs. They're not gonna be able to predict your next move. They always say. Let them copy because they're always five steps behind and it's true. And here's where most photographers lose their magic. They compare themselves. They copy trends. They're captions sound like everyone else's. Maybe they're putting'em in chat, GBT, they edit to please the algorithm. They're scared to show up and show their personality and Instagram stories.'cause maybe it's cringe. Maybe it feels cringe. They hide behind their work instead of standing in their work, they're unsure of who they are. So their brand feels confusing, hand raised. But here's the truth, if you feel unclear, insecure, lost, overwhelmed, guess what? Your brand looks unclear, insecure, lost, and overwhelmed. Your confidence is your magnetism. Your clarity is your guiding compass. Your confidence in your identity is your sales engine. Which brings me to this. If you wanna stand out, really stand out in this industry, you need to know you. By the time that this episode comes out, my Black Friday deal on. The artist story, it's 50% off and we break down all of these things. It's good work that you will do, and now that it's slow season, you have enough time to do it because you need to know your story, your purpose, your signature style, your why, your personality, your unique point of view. Your unique approach and how you want people to feel when they see your work. That's the stuff that builds the brand. That's the stuff that people talk about, and that's what high end couples want, honestly. They want good work. They wanna be seen. They want to know exactly what to expect, not that you just threw something together and they wanna be taken care of. You don't need more weddings. You need more identity. And if you're listening to this right now thinking, Ugh, that's what I'm missing, then stay very close this week. Watch the Lincoln Bio because every single day I'm dropping a deal that is helping with all of this. This is my work. This is what I do. I want to help uncover you and help you refine your style and help you build a brand that people feel not only see but feel, so you'll see everything as it rolls out. If you wanna peek ahead and get on the list, you already know the link is in the show notes. I'm sending this the day before everything launches. So you can snag my first deal, which is the artist story that drops on Monday at 7:00 AM Eastern. I will see you there. I'm so excited to do this work with you guys and help you uncover yourselves during slow season. I will see you in the next episode. Happy shopping.