As an entrepreneur, you probably hear how important your “personal brand” is all the time. Having a personal brand that allows you to stand out has many benefits, from helping you connect with your ideal clients and people who need what you’re offering to help to build your reputation in your industry. A great personal branding photograph can communicate who you are, and what you stand for, and help you truly stand out from your competitors.

There’s a lot to think about as an entrepreneur. People often push “branded photos for my business” to the bottom of their “to-do” list simply because they’re too busy to think about them. While I realize that business photos may not be something you’ve been told you need as an entrepreneur and as a branding photographer, I know they are absolutely essential.

A few months ago, a Wall Street Journal article generated quite a bit of buzz in my LinkedIn feed, and I truly enjoyed reading not only the article, but all the different opinions about it in the comments.

The article was titled, “The Perfect Professional Headshot is Worth $1,000, and Maybe Even a Job.” Many professionals in my LinkedIn network shared it and put in their two cents around it. Here’s an excerpt from the article that basically sums up what it was saying:

Lots of photographers say they can do headshots. It’s the most basic type of photo any photographer takes. So it should be easy to choose any photographer to help you create a great headshot, right?

I thought I’d share what I’ve learned since making this choice about two years ago for this final installment. Just like with anything, there’s good and bad, and it’s all there to teach me.

I enjoy sharing the ins and outs (and ups and downs) with you this month in this blog series on my RV life. During the first few posts, I talked about why we chose this life and the logistics of making it work for us. Today, let’s look at some of the realities of living full-time in an RV (the good and the not-so-good).

This week, I thought I’d answer some questions about the logistics of living life on wheels. It’s definitely different, and we’ve learned a lot in the two years we’ve been doing it.

I love sharing with you through this blog. I usually write helpful articles about how to get the most out of your next photo shoot or how to use your professional photos to their maximum benefit on social media. But I’m also a fairly unique photographer because I live full-time in an RV with my husband. While I’ve referenced that occasionally here, I’ve never really shared many details, and people always ask me about it.

I thought I’d take a whole month and write a series sharing some of what I love (and don’t) about living the RV life. I’ll start with the basics this week and then delve more deeply into some of the details in the coming weeks.

Here are some of the questions I get about our RV life.

Chances are good you’ve spent good money with an expert who’s helped you define your business brand. If so, you know which fonts, images, and colors define for the world exactly what your business does and who you are as the “face” of that business.

Chances are good you’ve spent good money with an expert who’s helped you define your business brand. If so, you know which fonts, images, and colors define for the world exactly what your business does and who you are as the “face” of that business.

Every branding photo shoot I do has one main goal; to get my clients the content they need so they can share their brand online. Having content that communicates what you do as well as who you are is more important than ever in the crowded social media space. You want to stand out and get noticed, and branded photos are the key to that.

I love working with corporate clients. It gives me the chance to meet lots of amazing, interesting people. I pride myself on giving each company with whom I work a cohesive, branded look in their company photos while still making sure each executive feels like their photos represent who they are as individuals.

The term, “small fish in a big pond” has never been more appropriate than it is right now in the world of small business online marketing. No matter how you market online (social media, your website, a blog, your podcast), chances are good you’re swimming in a very big pond with a lot of other people who are all vying for the attention of the same people you’re hoping to reach.

It seems like the whole world is on Zoom, especially in the past two years. For a while, we were all living our lives on Zoom, from business meetings to family gatherings.

No matter what you use Zoom for, I’m guessing you’d like to look nice doing it. I know I do. Here are a few simple things you can do to show up as your best self on your next Zoom call:

Pay Attention to Your Appearance

Be Aware of your Lighting

Manage Your Background

Look Your Laptop Camera In the Eye

Social media marketing is a part of pretty much everyone’s marketing plan now, and if it isn’t, it should be. If you’re not convinced that social media is where your ideal clients are hanging out, I’ve got a few statistics that might just change your mind…

• There are now nearly 4 billion users on social media

• 57.6% of the world (4.55 billion people) now uses at least one social platform

• Globally, there are 5.29 billion unique mobile users, which means that more than two-thirds of the world’s population now has access to a mobile phone

• On average, people spend two hours and twenty-seven minutes per day using social media

• 54% of social media browsers use social media to research products

• There are expected to be at least 3.9 billion people using social media worldwide in 2022 which is a 4.8% increase from 2021

I’m sure you’ve been hearing about “branded” professional photos. This is not a new concept, but in the past few years, what’s “acceptable” or “expected” in a headshot has changed. People are more and more creative, and their photos have begun to be more about expressing who they are than making sure they fit into some sort of “professional photo” mold.

As a branding photographer, I love this trend, not only because it makes the photos I capture with my clients more interesting but because it allows my clients to truly show who they are through their photos. Here are a few tips for ensuring your next photo is a window into your personality.

The number one thing you can do to change that is to find a way to stand out from the crowd with professional branded portraits. That means your personal brand is more important now than ever. People want to do business with human beings, and the more real and authentic you are, the more people will want to do business with you.

Since social media marketing is always visual, your first step toward putting yourself “out there” in a more authentic way is to get awesome, personal, branded photos that allow people to see you and see who you are.

The chances are good that you’ll be going into your next photoshoot fairly “blind.” That means you won’t necessarily know what poses you need or which props to use to get the best possible pictures.

You want to make sure the poses you’re choosing represent who you are and your brand and end up with the right pictures to use for all the things you’ll need them for (website, marketing, profile photos, social media posts, etc.)

Where you have your photos taken for your next photoshoot can make a huge difference in how well they turn out. Since I specialize in branding sessions, my number one priority is to make sure the location you choose puts your brand front and center and tells your brand’s story.

I love locations that take viewers behind the scenes of your business and show them what a typical day in the life of your brand looks like. This might actually be your office, if it’s styled and branded and has plenty of great, natural light, but not always. If you work from home, you might not even have an actual office. If that’s the case, we’ll need to get creative.

I often think it would be ideal if your best friend was an awesome professional photographer. That’s because, the more you trust the person taking your photo, the more relaxed you’ll be and the better the photos turn out.

Getting a great photo is about a lot more than the lighting or the background or even the equipment you use. All of those things are important, but I can tell you, as a professional photographer, it’s the energy and how well you and your photographer are aligned that has the biggest impact on how your photos turn out.