I’ve been talking about how I capture personal branding photographs in the past few videos. Starting with your personal values and 3 simple steps, I move onto future pacing (who gets branding photos) and finally scoring your brand / your online profile.
So in the past four weeks, while I was talking to you about all those points, I thought about how I could condense all that into something that you can take away and use in any photographic session.
Why?
This 6-page workbook wasn’t created for self-promotion gurus. Folks like that don’t need me. I’m here for you if you’re merely busy doing the hard work but thinking your work should speak for itself (secret… It doesn’t). Maybe you feel that it’s not about you (secret… It is about you). Perhaps you don’t want to feel like you’re into self-promotion (as if it’s some woo hoo taboo thing). Or you may think self-promotion is a narcissistic and self-absorbed endeavour. I’m here to explain how personal branding really works and how I help my clients to achieve better results.
The way I approach it is this – There are three pillars
One – self-awareness aka know yourself
Two – your message and positioning
Three – representation.
Branding is talked about in the context of marketing. If you haven’t got anything to market (your project and work) then you don’t have to watch this video or even follow what I do. Go and spend time outside and enjoy the sun!
As a photographer… You could easily think I only work in the third ‘representation’ pillar.
Yes, in a way… That’s true. But I cannot create effective branding photos for you if you haven’t got the other two pillars worked out or at least you’re starting to work those areas out.
That’s why I’ve been having a lot of conversations with clients to tease out those elements and they often say that the other photographers didn’t bother asking questions. Of course! Because technically speaking it’s not their job. But I see it as my job because I don’t merely click the shutter on my camera. I find out who I am photographing and the story they want to tell others.
Knowing yourself – that’s when I ask you about your personal values. I catch your positioning and message when I ask you for the first time, ‘What do you do?’
If you merely introduce yourself as ‘I’m a x’ and end your sentence, l have more work to do with you before we have a photo shoot.
So back to the workbook that I mentioned in the introduction. It is designed to give you a solid foundation to get to the representation stage.
The workbook covers :
- Scoring your online profile
- Who you are and what you do
- Your personal values and how you go about identifying those
- Your colours
- Your environment (happy place)
If you’re interested in working these out check out the the Personal Branding Workbook page.
