| “You build a business by building relationships, not by chasing transactions.” — Lara Jade |
Every photographer who has ever refreshed their inbox waiting for a client to respond to a proposal understands what transaction-chasing feels like. You sent the numbers. You’re waiting for a yes or no. The silence is uncomfortable. You want the booking — and it’s hard not to frame everything around whether you get it.
The transaction mindset treats each inquiry as a sale to be closed. The relationship mindset treats each inquiry as a person to be understood — someone whose trust, if you earn it properly, will produce not just one booking but a career’s worth of referrals.
Jade’s point is that the business that results from each approach looks completely different.
Who Is Lara Jade?
Lara Jade is a British fashion and portrait photographer who began shooting professionally as a teenager and built a substantial career and online following through a combination of strong technical work and a very direct approach to sharing her business philosophy. She’s taught extensively through platforms like CreativeLive and her own educational content, and she’s been particularly vocal about the business side of photography — including the relationship-building that underpins sustainable creative careers.
The Business Lesson: The Follow-Up Is Where Relationships Are Built
Most photographers treat the follow-up as a transaction tool. You follow up because you want to know if you got the booking. The subtext of the message is: have you decided yet?
The most effective follow-ups don’t carry that energy. They’re relationship investments — messages that demonstrate genuine interest in the client, that add value rather than just requesting a decision, that feel like the beginning of a conversation rather than the end of a sales pitch.
A follow-up that says “I wanted to check in to see if you had any questions about the proposal” is a transaction message. A follow-up that says “I was thinking about what you mentioned about your family — I actually have a spot next weekend near the location you described and wanted to see if that might work for you” is a relationship message. The second one is doing five times the work.
The follow-up gap — the leads who received your proposal and never heard from you again because you didn’t want to seem pushy — is one of the most consistent revenue leaks in photography businesses. Most of those leads didn’t go with a competitor. They just forgot about you. Because the last experience they had with you was receiving a proposal, and then nothing.
A thoughtful follow-up — one that adds value, acknowledges their specific situation, and makes the next step easy — is not pushy. It’s attentive. And attentive is exactly the energy that builds the kind of relationship Jade is describing.
Real-World Application: Create a Follow-Up Calendar
For every proposal you send, create a follow-up reminder three days later and seven days later. The three-day message checks in and offers to answer questions. The seven-day message adds something — a recently published image that’s relevant to their situation, a note about a date that’s about to book up, a question that shows you’ve been thinking about their specific session.
Two messages. Three days apart. Most of your cold leads will come back at one of those two touchpoints. Because they needed the relationship signal — not the sales pressure.
Take the Next Step
OTODEO’s Follow-Up Script Templates give you the exact language for every follow-up scenario — from the three-day check-in to the re-engagement of a lead that went cold three months ago. Get them free at otodeo.com/follow-up-script-templates.
Keep Reading
- Quote of the Day – Joe Edelman on Treating Photography Like a Business and the System That Makes Consistent Bookings Possible
- Quote of the Day – Lara Jade on Relationships vs. Transactions and the Follow-Up Gap That Kills Photography Bookings
- Quote of the Day – Chris Burkard on Curiosity, Exploration, and Turning Your Photography Journey Into Content That Books Clients
- Quote of the Day – Martin Schoeller on Proximity, Clarity, and Why Photographers Who Niche Down Book Better Clients
- Quote of the Day – Platon on Trust, Safety, and the Photographer-Client Relationship That Drives Referrals