There’s no crying in hockey. 

Unless you’re a photographer who is shooting three portrait sessions plus one wedding every week, you’re burnt out AF from this schedule, and you desperately want to transition your business into offering solely boudoir, but you’ve heard NO more times than you can count in the past four months.

Then? You can cry. Even if you’re at a hockey game. 

Even if the Bison mascot for the Sioux Falls Stampede Hockey Team is staring at you like you’ve lost your mind. You can still cry. 

I’d forgive you. 

Because this was exactly me. 

The first 4 months after deciding I wanted to go all-in as a boudoir photographer I heard one word and one word only: No. 

Would you like to be a model for my boudoir sessions?

No.

Would you be interested in booking a boudoir session?

No. 

I had my prices set as low as I could go ($500/session). I had a portfolio of boudoir shoots from my wedding clients to show I was capable…

And still…inquiry after inquiry after inquiry came back…

No. No. No.

There was one potential client who I *really* thought was going to be a yes. She had reached out to me. We’d chatted. She seemed interested and excited about everything!

And then she left me a voicemail right in the middle of a hockey game telling me…

No. 

She wasn’t going to book a boudoir session after all.

Queue all the tears and Bison witnessing the flood. 

This would have been a good time to give up. Right? Like, you couldn’t have *blamed* a girl for saying enough is enough. 

This isn’t working out. Now isn’t the time. No one wants this service. You’re a successful wedding photographer, why don’t you just be grateful for that and move on?

All these things crossed my mind. 

But, I said F it. 

I raised my boudoir prices to $1500 a session (which is where I had wanted them to be in the first place) and soldiered on.

A few weeks later?

That client (you know, the *one*) called me back. She wanted to book! 

I crossed every finger and toe on my body and told her that I’d love to work with her, but my prices were now $1500 instead of the $500 they had been when we’d initially talked. 

Guess what?

She said, “That’s perfect! Let’s do it.”

Sis, I kid you not.

Her shoot was amazing!  She loved her photos. 

More women continued to book. My prices increased as the experience I delivered to my clients elevated and expanded. 

Here I am, two years later. 

✨Shooting just 2-3 boudoir sessions each month and earning way more than I used to make as a wedding and portrait photographer while working way less. (no nights, no weekends!) 

✨Helping women see how beautiful they are and feel like a million bucks every day. 

Don’t let anyone fool you. Running a business is hard. Pivoting to a new service takes time. 

But if I— the girl crying at the hockey game—can do it….

Then so can you. Just don’t give up. 

Emma 

You can save yourself the dramatic crying sesh if you start your boudoir services with the support, know-how, and guidance of a coach who has been there, done that, and can show you the way! (Hint: That coach is me!) To learn more about my courses and one-time coaching sessions for photographers who aspire to add boudoir to their resumes, click here.