Nicole Begley (00:00)
In today's episode, we are talking all about jelly cats. Jelly what? Jelly cats. These are highly priced stuffed plushies of random things like pancakes and the craze they create and how that might translate to your photography business. Stay tuned.

Nicole Begley (00:20)
I'm Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer turned pet and family photographer. Back in 2010, I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving $2,000 $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six-figure businesses.

that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place. With over 350,000 downloads, welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast.

Nicole Begley (01:19)
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the freedom focused photography podcast. I'm your host Nicole Bagley. And today we have Heather Lotton and back on the podcast. I feel like we go in 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, I've been in town. I've been in town for almost two months now. I am, I am, I leave in 11 days again, so I'm okay.

Heather (01:40)
⁓

That's insanity. How are you surviving? Are you surviving?

Nicole Begley (01:49)
and I have two horses in the meantime. We're good. I will survive. Actually. It's funny. My husband's been on at the airport three times since I left and like, 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 going to say this out loud.

Heather (01:51)
Okay, okay, you're gonna make it, I'm sure. Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Nicole Begley (02:17)
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're teenagers. But there was still just a lot. My son doesn't drive yet, so then I'd feel bad if he was sitting around here. 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 into 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 think we should.

Heather (02:57)
I mean,

probably because you just did. So I say, I say go ahead.

Nicole Begley (03:02)
We

teased our Elevate group because I just wanted to kind of get numbers on who would be interested. Heather's actually coming down next month for a little powwow on Charlotte and we're going to finalize the planning while she's here. We're going to do a two-day Elevate live situation here in Charlotte, quarter one.

Heather (03:23)
Very, very exciting.

Nicole Begley (03:26)
my gosh,

it's going to be amazing. All of just, I mean, the, community inside of elevate is off the freaking charts. ⁓ I have never been in a community like that. ⁓ like people are so supportive, so active, getting so many results. is unbelievable. And to bring everybody together in person, ⁓ it's going to be, it's going to be fantastic.

Heather (03:49)
It

is going to be amazing. 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, said, hey, when you joined, what was it that, you know, maybe got you off the fence or, you know, 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, and she said, I, 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.

And just to reiterate, 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. As 100 % of what I do. So it's important to me to be connected to you and to your business. And she, she said, Heather, you know what? I feel that. I said, good. I hope that you do.

Nicole Begley (05:35)
I love it. Yeah. So it's, it's going to be incredible. By the way, one of my main ⁓ values is also community. So very similar. gosh. It's going to be awesome. So anyway, so I've been planning that and then I've also started a workshop that I'm teaching with Shelley Paulson. we did, the Andalusian escape, this past spring in Spain.

Heather (05:44)
Yes. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (06:00)
Next fall we are going to France. Oh, spring, spring in Spain and fall in France. I mean, we're going to have to go in winter. Actually, we're thinking of like a Wyoming and winter. So, all right, there we go. Um, uh, but anyway, so we're planning that. So I have had a little like, you know, I've been able to plan some travel. that's bringing this back around full circle, how I've got my sanity being here for as long as I have.

Heather (06:07)
Amazing.

There you go.

Yes, right. Okay, so tell us about a recent experience you had.

Nicole Begley (06:32)
yeah. So this summer, ⁓ I think I might've mentioned, didn't mention this one, but if you're on my email list, you might've seen that I, ⁓ went to New York with my kids and their nieces and nephews, my sister-in-law, 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 U S because it's a Parisian hot chocolate at Angelina's in New York. It's a, ⁓ originally in Paris and it is.

So good. 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, OK, 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?

Heather (07:15)
Hmm.

Nicole Begley (07:30)
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? And so yeah.

Heather (07:53)
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 eighty four dollars for this. Yeah, it's this special oil, Nicole, that they use. OK, so try to keep up.

Nicole Begley (08:20)
Where is

this? Where is this? Is it over in Beaver?

Heather (08:22)
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 and you know, there's like brick streets and these little shops. And someone was telling me like, I was watching a true crime documentary.

Nicole Begley (08:25)
Wow.

Heather (08:51)
And did you know that they use that photo for like a ton of towns and cities across the country to depict small town USA, but it's not real. It's mean, it's Beaver. It's a real photo, but they're using it in true crime for these different towns. Is that not hilarious? She said she was watching 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.

Nicole Begley (09:07)
Hopefully.

Heather (09:19)
So her store carries jelly cats, are, know, to my best knowledge, a stuffed animal. OK, that's all I've got for you. It's a stuffed animal. But 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. want to don't quote me. It's like maybe fifty five dollars.

Nicole Begley (09:27)
Same. Yes.

Yes, yes, about

$60 they were in New York this summer for a small one. Yes.

Heather (09:49)
The biggest, 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, I just want to be clear, this is a stuffed animal, okay? And there's.

Nicole Begley (10:00)
It's not like a motorized stuffed animal. doesn't like it's not an AI stuffed animal. It's not a real octopus. It is like a stuffed octopus.

Heather (10:02)
Right?

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 Ella was saying,

Nicole Begley (10:35)
I I

used ⁓ &M's for my kids.

Heather (10:37)
One, my kids got one ⁓ You go to bathroom, you get one 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 a thousand dollar bill on several of them, you know? And they fight over them. 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, did you get the avocado in? you in Ella will say, 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. Yeah, so this is this is like the next level of the level.

Nicole Begley (11:29)
What?

Heather (11:34)
And then there was this jelly cat was going to raise their prices and it's always limited always. And 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. There's just it's this whole conspiracy, Nicole. It's just the craziest thing. And they've done a mass

Nicole Begley (11:42)
Uh-huh.

Heather (12:06)
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?

Nicole Begley (12:40)
Well, hold on now. I just randomly looked up, I was like Jelly Cat hand sewn, but then you know how Google has like random little questions. So it says, what's the rarest one? it can rarity subjective, but bashful money Imogen 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 Cat 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, they're, they're not making it. Like it's low quality as possible. Kind of like looking at 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 purchased. ⁓ but.

Heather (13:28)
Right.

Yes.

Nicole Begley (13:38)
It is elevating my brand and my experience and it's at a premium price. ⁓ so anyway, so that's just a little bit about jelly cats. So anyway, let's back.

Heather (13:47)
Well, hold on. So

they're ethically sourcing materials in order to create legendary bunny rabbits? Okay. Okay.

Nicole Begley (13:54)
Yeah. Uh-huh.

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. ⁓ So like those kinds of things can, if somebody comes and checks out a couple of different pet photographers and they have those same values, well, a hundred percent they're choosing me. know, so, so lead into that is what I'm saying, you know. Yep.

Heather (14:41)
Yes.

Okay, we need to talk

about 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 Kendra. I think her like, ⁓ Kendra 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

Nicole Begley (15:11)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (15:16)
that is worth a lot, lot, lot more money in the eyes of the client than, you know, I'm 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.

Nicole Begley (15:38)
It's also a differentiator because I bet every pet photographer has the value and purpose of, 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 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?

Heather (15:46)
Yeah.

We will explore this. Okay, let me finish the book. I'm about halfway through when I finish it.

Nicole Begley (16:05)
Okay, I'm gonna write

this down as a future topic right now. Value driven. Yeah.

Heather (16:10)
Good idea. Capture it. Yeah, there's different types

of stories like the founder story and the value story, et cetera. 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. Yeah. Okay.

Nicole Begley (16:31)
I love it. I love it. Awesome. Okay.

So back to jelly cats. 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 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 shorts and it is a little, it's probably the size of my office. It is not large. It is a little like diner, 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 62, God knows how much.

plush animal you're going to buy or plush food. like, I'm going to get a waffle. I'm going to get a jelly cat waffle. And 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 from the diner. And then you go and pay a hundred dollars for your. Yes.

Heather (17:48)
Wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm

just picking up on the fact that this is not actual food.

Nicole Begley (17:54)
No! It's a stuffed animal! 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.

Heather (17:57)
Okay. ⁓

Okay, have mercy on my soul. When you first said Jelly Cat Diner, I thought, you're actually like getting lunch and then you can buy jelly cats.

Nicole Begley (18:11)
No, no, 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 Google Jelly Cat diner. OK, 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.

Heather (18:26)
have it up on my screen.

Nicole Begley (18:36)
All right, Heather, what did you think?

Heather (18:36)
Okay, so yeah.

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, I was watching the chef.

Nicole Begley (19:02)
Yes.

Heather (19:03)
He was preparing the amusable Fran pancakes and he had them, the stuffed animal, let's be clear, in a frying pan and he was flipping it like you would flip pancakes. And then he's telling this whole story and then he gets 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 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 just know that every item is stuffed 100 percent full of joy and each meal includes a jelly cat, amusable 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.

Nicole Begley (20:25)
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, okay. I mean, how hard can reservations be? Heather, they are immediately filled as soon as they are released. So then I looked and I'm like, okay, they're released whatever four weeks before this and that. I told my sister-in-law, she's like, no, really it's.

Heather (20:44)
Of course they are!

Nicole Begley (20:53)
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. So 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 want to buy a pancake and go up there and have them cook it. Like, no, no.

Heather (21:03)
my gosh.

Nicole Begley (21:23)
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 going to cook it. You're not going to get the pin. They're not going to 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. It's a sticker sheet.

Heather (21:48)
Yeah, that you cannot eat. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (21:53)
and a little enamel pin like, yeah. So there's, there's a lot of lessons here and people are clamoring to purchase it.

Heather (22:01)
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 like Canon and Nikon, by the way, dictate the prices that their affiliates or partners are allowed to at. So I'm my understanding, okay.

Nicole Begley (22:26)
huh.

Heather (22:31)
is that it's 50%. So they're sold, they pay 50 % of what they list at. So if something is $10, they pay five for it. This is the store. So if Jelly Cat is selling something at $5, you know.

Nicole Begley (22:41)
Wow! Okay. Okay.

I mean, let's

make that real. They're selling it for 50. Wait, Jelly Cat selling where, where is Jelly Cat selling it for five? Are you from the wholesale side or the store? Like where, where is it? wholesale. Okay. Yep.

Heather (22:52)
Right.

wholesale so let's say let's do a real one because some of them 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 stores

Nicole Begley (23:12)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Which

is actually fairly good, I think, for retail. Yeah.

Heather (23:19)
amazing. my gosh.

And they all know it. So like the 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.

Nicole Begley (23:24)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

That's

right, it's scarcity on who can sell it even. Yes.

Heather (23:32)
majorly so. So

they have 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 twenty five dollars, the retailer listed at fifty. What what could Jelly Cat's cost of goods be on that twenty five dollar item?

Nicole Begley (23:48)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Heather (24:02)
It's for sure less than 50%. So I don't know, 10, 20. is it, it even with good materials, is it costing them five or $10 to produce that then sell it for 25 and then retailers 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.

Nicole Begley (24:05)
100%, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Heather (24:31)
And I think it's

brilliant. And I think that there are two types of people. OK, 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 I don't know that 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,

Companies are. 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, but I did hear one of my coaches say this is not recent. This has been years now. She asked someone, is it OK 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,

Nicole Begley (25:02)
What lesson is there here for us?

What does overpaid mean?

Heather (25:33)
right according to whom. So, okay,

what does that mean? And she's talking through this person about 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.

Nicole Begley (25:54)
⁓ excessively.

Heather (25:55)
I thought,

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, she likes to trigger people. ⁓

Nicole Begley (26:02)
See ya.

Well, I

mean, when you start to do that, though, it becomes really clear if you have a thought about it. Uh-huh.

Heather (26:10)
Well, 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 OK 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 OK to be excessively overpaid? I mean, I'm talking probably 90 percent or more of that room said no.

Nicole Begley (26:21)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

⁓

Heather (26:35)
But the interesting thing is the people who were like the 10 % of the, 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 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, cause I was doing the work, right? And I also agree.

Nicole Begley (26:45)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Again, go ahead.

Heather (27:06)
I mean, what are your thoughts, I think?

Nicole Begley (27:07)
Yeah, no,

a hundred percent this gosh, I say a hundred percent a lot. Sorry guys. Anyway, when I was, this reminds me of when we were selling our house in Florida. Brett and I moved to Florida 2003 after he was doing the med school. And then 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 like 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. So are you ever overpaid? You are simply saying this is the price. You're putting that 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.

Heather (28:07)
Right.

Right!

Nicole Begley (28:33)
A thousand dollars to one person could be a very different ⁓ experience than a thousand dollars to another person. And it is not our job to be like, ⁓ where is that land for you? It's our job to be like, this is what this costs. This is the value that I can bring to the table. Are you interested?

Heather (28:52)
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 this value, like the house, the jelly cat. also in Ella's store, they sell nest candles. So like the biggest one is like six hundred dollars and people will come in and buy three of them. Yes. There's. Yes.

Nicole Begley (28:55)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Well, this is another lesson and that is

I don't care where you're located. There are people that have money to spend.

Heather (29:21)
Because if you looked at Beaver on the socioeconomic ⁓ 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.

Nicole Begley (29:26)
Yes. ⁓

and enough

pockets of money that that gift shop can stay in business, handily.

Heather (29:37)
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 he doesn't see, doesn't understand about this value and the scarcity and the emotion, 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.

Nicole Begley (29:54)
T's not their target market.

Yeah.

Heather (30:06)
because he knew he knew that in a market like that, targeting the middle was not a good idea.

Nicole Begley (30:13)
⁓ The middle is where they're going to be like, I can get that cheaper online. That is that's your, that's your photography clients are like, ⁓ 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

Heather (30:17)
Exactly.

Yeah!

Nicole Begley (30:42)
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? 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.

Heather (31:13)
Yeah, which is a certain face on a pickle. They're willing to pay for that pickle because my daughter will send them 10 photos of the different faces. Okay, 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 have an excessive amount of value. So yeah, I guess it is. I just don't let my head get all turned upside down with this, where a lot of us...

Nicole Begley (31:40)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (31:41)
do because of money stories and our philosophy and all that. And it's fine. That's fine. But if you, you know, 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 and the empowered course where we talk 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. know, whatever brought up for you is like, okay, that

Nicole Begley (31:52)
They are really good.

Heather (32:09)
That makes sense as to why I hesitate to multiply my cost of goods to get a certain amount. 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%.

Nicole Begley (32:28)
single digits.

Heather (32:30)
That means to some people, if you looked at the math on paper, some people might say that's excessive. Some people.

Nicole Begley (32:37)
Well, especially

the industry benchmark is 35 % cost of goods or 25, sorry, 25 % cost of goods sold.

Heather (32:40)
35 % and she did

seven. Like I was talking to another elevator this morning who just had her highest sale of 14,000. And she said her cost of goods sold, ⁓ she had, we 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.

Nicole Begley (33:01)
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 judgment for saying, ⁓ thank you Brain for showing me that I have thoughts around this that I might want to look at.

Heather (33:06)
Right. ⁓

Yes. Yes. Yeah, no judgment on the judgment.

Nicole Begley (33:28)
I may want to jump into coach

week or the next fast track coaching and get coached by Heather.com and talk about those thoughts.

Heather (33:35)
Yeah,

no, it's OK if you have the judgment. It's just it's giving you 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.

Nicole Begley (33:55)
Remember our Birkin Bag conversations?

Heather (33:57)
Yes,

where I would have been like, I can't, still don't understand the bags, but.

Nicole Begley (34:02)
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.

Heather (34:07)
Right. Because of what you value.

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. doesn't mean anything because of what you said earlier, because the lady walking in to buy the jellycats for her granddaughter has a lot, lot, lot, lot of money. So none of this is excessive to her or overpaid.

But 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 timeframe? The cabbage patch kids.

Nicole Begley (34:47)
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. look, it's stuffed bald eagle. 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 lots 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.

Heather (35:07)
Okay.

Nicole Begley (35:17)
⁓ cause she's like, no, I would not have gone with the madness for that.

Heather (35:22)
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. we, yeah, I wish I would have known you. So 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, was whatever the store was. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I believe it was.

Nicole Begley (35:33)
You could have had mine. I did.

All right. Kmart maybe.

Heather (35:49)
and bought like the knockoff version. I remember at that age, so what are you, maybe 10, where I was so conflicted because 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.

Nicole Begley (35:56)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm,

mm-hmm.

Heather (36:16)
that I couldn't

get a real, 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 knockoff. And my mom was trying and I probably was pretty, I'm sure I said thank you, but I probably was pretty ungrateful. And I think, my gosh. And that's where it started. I don't know, who knows?

Nicole Begley (36:33)
Okay.

Actually I'll have, we all have those things. Yeah. my gosh. Well, this has been a super fun conversation. ⁓ yeah, I love it. ⁓ you guys, what is coming up? This is going to come out next week. When's your next, ⁓ fast track coaching.

Heather (36:40)
issues, right?

in a couple of three-year-ish weeks. Yeah, if you go to www.getcoachedbyheather.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. All you have to do is talk to me and I will help you and we'll go from there.

Nicole Begley (36:58)
It's in October, right? Yeah.

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, did we call it? Secondhand coaching. can have some secondhand coaching to show up. Yep. Yeah.

Heather (37:24)
No.

Yeah, coaching my proxy. Yeah. Because

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 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, ⁓ okay. It's so much easier to see in someone else than yourself.

Nicole Begley (37:43)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Heather (37:58)
So secondhand coaching, coaching by proxy, all of it. I would encourage you to speak to me. We've had people in the elevator say, you know, after they talked to me, they made a thousand dollars 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.

Nicole Begley (38:19)
Yeah,

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