052: Lacey Barratt – The Art of Birth Photography & What It Means To Be A Woman In Business

February 10, 2022

“Only do what feels good. I think that’s the best bit of advice that I can give – if it feels good, do it. If it scares you and excites you at the same time, do it. “

LACEY BARRATT

Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Lacey Barratt.

Check out some of the biggest points from Lacey’s interview below:

What is your advice when it comes to mindset & manifestation?

Yeah. It takes me back to the beginning when I was like, “I got my first camera,” and it was a totally shit camera, but I was like, “I’m a photographer now.” I bought like 100 plants for the house during lockdown because I was going crazy, and I was like, “I’m basically a botanist now.” As far as manifesting goes, it is putting yourself in a position of where you’re already doing the thing that you want to do even though you’re not doing it.

For me, it was buying a camera and being the photographer, even though I wasn’t doing it. But because I did it, it put me in alignment with what it was that I wanted to be doing. This is all about … I only like to do things that make me feel good, and some people will argue and say, “Well, you still have to do the admin even though you don’t like it,” and I’m like, “But do I? Really?”

How can listeners change their perspective on ‘charging their worth’?

Yeah. I feel like charge your worth is a super controversial. Well, it’s controversial for me. Whenever I hear charge your worth, I’m like, “Do I …” It feels really gross for me because charge your worth is indicating that if you charge less than someone else, that you’re not worthy. I don’t like the way that makes me feel, and if that makes me feel that way, then surely someone else is going to feel less worthy as well.

Then it becomes a battle of pricing, right? We get so pissed off at people undercutting us, but we created that problem. We literally created that problem by telling people that they need to charge their worth, and then they’re going, “Well, if you think you’re worth that much, I’m worth that much too, but I’m just going to charge $50 less or $200 less.” Now the only thing that we … Instead of looking at somebody, especially in the birth space, and I’m sure it’s the same in the wedding industry, you really need to be able to connect to that person, and … Excuse me.

When you’re unable to … When it’s all about money, that’s the only thing that they’re comparing you to the next photographer. There is nothing different between photographer, A, B and C except price. Now they’re going to be making a decision on hiring somebody based on price. I try to make it extremely obvious that it’s not the price or the money that is what’s important to me, it’s about the relationship that we can build in the process and what you can benefit from it as a client and what I can benefit from it as a human being, as a photographer as well.

This is how we get a bunch of people who are like, “I had this problem client,” and I’m like, “Really? How’d that go?” Or I hear a lot of people who are like, “Well, I am charging,” I don’t know, “considerably less amount of money than what someone else is,” and they’re like, “I still can’t get bookings.” There’s this fine line between too expensive and the too cheap, and then people are like, “Well, where do I sit?” My answer to this is always how much do you need to live the lifestyle that you want to live?

Because this is the whole reason that we went into business, is to have the freedom to be able to do what we wanted when we wanted. Especially if you’re a woman in business, this is, I think, where the feminine and the masculinity head bud, because you’re a woman who has gone into business which stems from a very feminine energy, because you’re like, “I’m feeling good, and maybe I can do something with this. Maybe I can monetize it.” Then you hit that brick wall of masculinity and business, and then you’re like, “Why am I not making any money? This isn’t working.”

Bring it back to the basics of why did you start your business? Well, because you wanted to be financially independent, because you wanted to contribute to the family income. I always ask people, “What’s your ultimate goal? Is your goal to retire your partner? Is your goal to pay for holidays only? Is your goal for extracurricular activities? Then base your pricing off of that.” Me being the sole income provider for five children, my pricing is going to be way different than somebody whose partner works full time and their mom or their mother-in-law can take their children whenever they can.

That’s going to make a massive difference in pricing, but that doesn’t mean that that person who is charging half the price that I am is any worse than me. Your value is not based on how much money you’re charging, and that’s why I get so triggered when I hear charge your worth. But I’m like, “But what if they don’t need to charge as much money as you?” Then what we end up doing is we end up out pricing ourselves in our own industry, because then we’re like, “You’re charging $2,000? I’m going to charge $2,200,” and everyone needs to increase the prices.

Then everyone collectively increases the prices, and then they’ve priced themselves out of everybody. What do you do when you’re in an industry or in a niche where you’re like, “Everybody deserves to have access to incredible wedding photographers, everyone deserves to have access to incredible birth photographers,” and then you’ve got this internal dialogue between photographers that are constantly bitching at each other to raise the bar? You price yourself out of your own industry, and then people are like, “I don’t have any inquiries because everyone’s charging $5,000.”

Who inspires you?

I think when it comes to inspiration, I think anybody can be an inspiration. I’m either inspired to be like that person or I’m inspired to not be like that person. I think it’s all about just a matter of perspective, right? And what it is that we’re looking to achieve in our life and who it is that we want to model as well. Some people that really inspire me, individuals are … I’m obsessed with Lady Gaga, right?

Absolutely obsessed. I think anyone who is a powerful woman with money, which sounds really strange to say, but I’m really inspired by powerful women with money. I think because when I see that, I go, “Oh, if they can do it, I can do it.” Then to see what they do with that money and the energy exchange that they have between other women in their industry and other charities that they are contributing to, I think that we need more money in the hands of powerful women because of the energy exchange that that creates.

Thank you!

Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Lacey for joining us on the show!

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, I hope you all enjoyed this episode.

See you soon,

Sally