April Payne

– Photographer

This industry can feel so secretive and impossible to navigate sometimes, especially when you’re trying to serve a new client base. But James and Otto, through their course The Business of Luxury Weddings, have developed a way to open the doors of the luxury wedding space, allowing others to see what actually goes on at a luxury level and helping industry professionals find space for themselves there as well. 

In a very short amount of time I have learned how to effectively network and relationship-build with strategy, growing my industry network by over 80%. I have become ruthless in the curation of my portfolio because I understand who I am serving and what they are looking for at a whole new level. I have confidently raised my prices by 75% to match my market value. But, I will admit that the most impactful thing I have learned from this course, and from James and Otto’s hands-on coaching approach, has been learning how to overcome my own mindset limitations – some I didn’t even know I had – and because I am seeing myself, my clients, and my business in a new way, I now am free to take calculated risks, with immense upside, that are backed by strategy and alignment with the brand of my dreams. It’s so easy to do this work in a vacuum, but with James and Otto coaching business strategy and mindset together, the inner work of leveling up my business has been rapid and thorough. 

The coaching is hands on, the strategies aren’t complicated, and the work is deep and meaningful. Through James and Otto’s generous sharing of their industry-shifting experience, I have a firm command of who I am, where I’m going, and what I’m going to do when I get there in a way that I never would have had going this journey alone. I think this course is revolutionary in its openness, honesty, and ability to apply to any vendor at any stage of business. I would recommend this course to quite literally everyone within the industry looking to grow well into the luxury wedding space.

Elke Van den Ende

– Photographer

“A win I wanted to share: this week I sent out two quotes for my top package, which is almost €8000. One of them is as good as confirmed.

I know that’s peanuts compared to many of your rates, but it’s huge in a country where a full day of wedding photography used to go for €3000 – €4000 (and a full day in Belgium is more like 14-16 hours).

I jumped to €3500 starting rate in the spring of 2022. If one of these quotes gets confirmed, / I know I’ve got enough revenue to support me next year, so I can confidently jump to €7000 – €10.000 starting rate and work on getting booked at those rates.

Still feels scary, but the course has stretched my mindset to make that seem like an attainable number. Really grateful for this space!”

Benedikt & Xenia

Videographer Film Team

We enrolled to the course last winter. It was our biggest investment in our business apart from equipment yet.

There was some fear attached to all the changes we had to encounter. After four years of creating wedding films, we thought we had hit a ceiling with our business (€4000 – €5000 per wedding film). In our opinion, we could only increase our income by shooting more, which seemed almost impossible due to the workload, or create some digital products. The reason we started creating wedding films in the first place was the love of storytelling and connecting with people. The thought of creating more than 20 wedding films a year to guarantee a decent income contradicted our initial dream. For us, it was simply too much to enjoy the process.

Then we heard about the business James and Otto were able to create. It took us a moment to process, but even before enrolling in their course, it changed our perspective. It may sound corny, but it relit a fire in us. It felt like we were starting our company from scratch. We changed our website completely, adopted a new approach for Instagram, updated our clothing, and changed our choice of equipment. We now attend wedding meet-ups to connect with people we want to work with on Instagram and take on second shooter jobs with inspirational colleagues. Applying all the changes James and Otto suggest in the course, especially reaching out to planners, is a lot of work. But at the same time, we celebrate all the small wins, such as noticing an aspirational planner following our stories after we contacted them.

Our biggest win yet is a booking for a wedding in Mallorca for 2024 for €7,200. We were recommended by a planner we reached out to. This mindset shift we are going through right now is the best thing that has happened to our little company since we first had the idea of starting it. We have a confident feeling that we are going to create some amazing films in the future with the appropriate budget.

Shukhrat Kamalob

-Photographer

“I have had the worst dry spell of leads and closing leads since I raised my prices. However, yesterday was a breakthrough.

Previously | was booking weddings at $4k and under.
Yesterday I booked 2 weddings in a row.
One $9k package that the couple will be paying in full and a smaller one just over $5k.

James & Otto already changed my mindset and the way I operate. Thank you, James. Thank you, Otto. You guys have shared your wisdom and experience with us that is practically impacting my business.

My investment more than paid for itself already.

Can’t wait to finish the course, book more higher-budget weddings, shoot less amount of weddings per year, and spend more time with my wife and our 6 boys.”

Kisa Conrad

– Photographer

“I’ve had 4 calls with planners so far, 2 more by next week, and 2 others that said they will talk we just haven’t solidified a date yet.

I have booked 3 weddings this month including this bride that came back around and raised her budaet is made me feel good!

Your course has lit a 🔥 to get on things and I appreciate you guys”

Chelsey Barhorst

-Photographer

” I finished the course yesterday and I loved it. I just wanted to shoot you both a note that this is the first education I’ve invested in that has me actually diving deep into my own business and making decisions that make sense for ME and my family – not just “do what we say and follow blindly” without a clear reason as to why or how it works for me. 

It’s causing me to take a hard look at the guts of my business and how to make strategic decisions moving forward. So thank you for that! ”

Brittany Branson

-Wedding Painter

Just wanted to give a stellar review of James and Otto ‘s course

I’m a live wedding painter and can’t tell you how much value I’ve already gained from the first three full modules I’ve completed. And so, I can’t even imagine how valuable it would be to all of you photographers and videographers  😀We’re all visual artists with service-based, tangible-heirloom-object-producing businesses.

Regina Tolley

-Wedding Violinist

So grateful to have your vast experience + knowledge with the luxury client as the foundation of my re-brand journey into the premium and luxury spaces.

As a violinist, I wondered if the course would be relevant enough to help change my business – and I’m so glad I took the leap!!

Even if a video was 100% geared toward photographers, the context of what you mentioned opened my mind to how the subject can apply to what I do, how I can elevate each interaction with the client and planner (and other creative partners), and be confident in the experience I absolute help to create as engaging live music entertainment.

Gagan Dhiman

-Photographer

I’m so pumped. Last 2 and a half months I’ve been grinding. I’m starting to see the results now. Just booked my first $ xx,000 wedding. I still have a lot of work to do but I’m excited to dive into this even deeper and learn to apply more to my business

Randy Lange- Massillon 

-Photography and Cinematography Duo

It’s been an exciting few days for us and our business. Especially since we just finished the course and are already seeing the results.

Otto and James really opened up about the luxury business and how to get started and make things happen.

Simply listen, take notes, take action, and make it the year of celebrations. This is the time to make a difference!

Thank you  James and Otto for sharing your knowledge and experience and being willing to help!

Sage

-Acoustic and Electric Cellist

I’m an acoustic and electric cellist from Melbourne, Australia.

I launched my solo business in May of this year (after managing a string quartet for 8 years), and have already booked my first international wedding, and made some wonderful new connections in the industry.

Based on the way I was previously operating, I thought it would take me a few years to achieve either of those things, and I 100% attribute both of those successes to the training. Even though I’m not a photographer, I have found the advice to be applicable in every way.

Very excited to continue this journey! This course literally has my name on it haha

Rachel Juarez-Carr

-Photographer

I wanted to send a quick note to thank you for all the insider info, support and encouragement while I’m working on rebranding (and for helping me get 100% on board with my need to rebrand in the first place!) 

Between the course material itself and the group community discussions — both the Zoom calls and the Facebook group — I’ve gone from vaguely feeling like I should probably tweak my brand messaging at some point… to creating a whole new brand that’s infinitely more strategic and intentional than the old one. (Plus, your extra-curricular reading recommendations are brilliant — I’m still only halfway through The Luxury Strategy because it’s huge, but I can feel it making me smarter page by page.) 

I feel like my business has leveled up about a thousand times since I took what was, for me, a huge leap and joined the course earlier this year. That investment paid for itself five times over with one booking, and my average has already more than doubled. And now I’ve soft-launched the new brand and am getting so much new interest: I’m excited to see where all the new connections that are in the works right now will lead. Thank you both so much!