I have an outdoor cat named Tiggy. About a year into his outdoor shenanigans, he stopped eating.
But here’s the weird part: he wasn’t losing weight.
My first thought was that a neighbor was feeding him. I know his route cuz he wears a tracker, so I asked the three houses he visits most. All of them said no.
So, I did what any responsible pet owner would do. I took him to the vet.
$500 later, after an extensive blood test, the vet, looking for a problem, found one. His Toxoplasma levels were high, indicating that common parasite cats cary. You know the reason pregnant women can’t clean the litter?
So for the next three months, I spent another $200 on medication and tortured my poor cat twice a day, forcing a vile liquid down his throat for two months.
The result? Absolutely no change. He still wouldn’t eat. He also started coming home less and less to the point where sometimes he’d be gone for 5 days.
Fast forward another year. On the same night I see Tiggy in the neighbors yard, licking his chops like he’d just finished a gourmet meal, his wife lets it slip that her husband feeds him.
WOW, just wow. My neighbor’s lie cost me over $700, put my cat through months of hell, and essentially kidnapped my cat.
And it made me think. Photographers do this all the time.
We see a symptom in our business like “I’m not booking enough clients,” and we immediately start looking for a complex, internal parasite.
We blame the market, we blame our gear, we blame our lack of knowledge on lighting. We convince ourselves we need a new lens, better lighting, another preset pack. We spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars and countless hours on a problem that doesn’t exist.
But the biggest, most common “parasite” we blame is market saturation.
We see other photographers in our area succeeding, and instead of seeing it as proof that it means we can succeed too, we tell ourselves, “There are too many photographers here. The market is saturated. No one is willing to pay good money.”
That is a lie. It’s the neighbor telling you, “Nope, I’m not feeding the cat.”
The fact that other photographers are thriving is not a sign that the market is saturated. It’s a sign that you can too.
The problem isn’t a parasite. The problem is that your “cat” is getting fed somewhere else. Your ideal client is booking someone else not because the market is saturated, but because that other photographer is offering them something they want—a clear niche, a powerful message, and an experience that sells value instead of just price.
So what does that actually look like? Here are three foundational things you can focus on right now:
1.Niche Down (For Real): Stop being a jack-of-all-trades who shoots “a little bit of everything.” Become a specialist. Are you the go-to photographer for entrepreneurs who need powerful branding images that attract high-ticket clients? When you specialize, you become an expert, and experts don’t have to compete on price.
2. Craft a Powerful Message: Stop talking about your camera or your years of experience on your website. A powerful message speaks directly to your ideal client’s problem. Your website shouldn’t just say, “I’m a headshot photographer.” It should say for example, “I help entrepreneurs land more opportunities with headshots that build instant trust.” One is what you do, the other is the problem you solve. That’s the difference.
3. Create an Experience That Sells Value: Your value isn’t just in the final images; it’s in the entire client journey. How easy is your welcoming process? Your website navigation? Your pitch? You booking process? How do you make clients feel prepared and confident before the shoot? Do you create an environment during the session that makes them feel like a superstar? A high-end experience, from the first email to the final gallery, is what makes clients forget the price and choose YOU over the cheaper guy.
Stop medicating the wrong issue and start building the business that becomes the only home your ideal clients will ever want.
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