Personal Branding Session :: Norwalk, Connecticut

While last year was a quieter year for me and photography, I still had some really beautiful opportunities to work with families and friends I’ve known a long time and/or work with regularly.

Daryn reached out to me in the fall about doing some branding photos for her new business, and we met up near my old stomping grounds in Norwalk, using the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum as a historical backdrop. It was a gorgeous fall morning, and personally, a really nice break from being at home.

Working so early in the morning, it was easy to keep a safe distance and take all the necessary precautions to keep each other safe while being productive and having fun. That’s the trifecta for me: safe, productive, and fun.

Here are some favorites!

10 Reasons to Invest in Personal Branding Photography

You didn’t leave your 9-5 job with a dream of working 24/7.

Think about that. Read it again. Can you relate?

Running a business is a ton of work, and there’s a reason big businesses have different departments to handle different areas. You should be able to focus on your strengths and have peace of mind that the rest is handled.

No matter what your business is, or what your brand represents, chances are you are immersed in the world of social media and the constant need to churn out content.

And it’s kind of exhausting, right?

Every day, thinking of something new to say that will be interesting to your audience. Taking or finding the perfect (or hey, just good enough) photo that pairs with your message and will make someone slow their scroll. You have mere seconds to catch someone’s attention, and then a few more seconds to draw them in with your words.

Some days, the pressure to do that can make you want to bury your head in the sand. You should be spending your time focusing on the work you love, and instead you spend hours trying to figure out this huuuuge piece of the marketing puzzle.

Confession time: I have these days, more often than I’d care to admit!

So, how can you make this piece of your business easier? How can you take the guesswork out of social media and get hours back in your day and week?

The answer is Personal Branding Photography.

Maybe you’ve heard of it. Maybe you haven’t.

Blog post: What is Personal Branding Photography?

I’d like to share from a photographer, small business owner and maker’s perspective how adding personal branding to your business will not only make your life easier, but will also grow your business.

10 reasons to invest in small business or personal branding photography today:

10. SAVE A BUTTLOAD OF TIME

Spend more time doing the work you love/with your family/traveling/etc - the reason you started your own business to begin with.

Content creation and social media planning can suck up your time and take you away from your work…and sometimes friends and family, if we’re being honest. It takes time to plan your visual content strategy and then write your captions or website copy. And if you don’t already have visual content to work with, that’s another task that will take time to plan and execute. And what if you don’t have great photo skills? Or equipment? Or know how to edit? You might not feel as confident to post your content, which is a real bummer when you have amazing products and services to share!

When you have person al branded photos ready top use at your fingertips, you immediately get hours of your life back. You can spend an hour a week planning and scheduling your content and spend the rest of the week on your business, your art, your product development, with your family, sitting on a beach or at a cafe in Paris enjoying your coffee.

Tip: It’s far easier to get work like this done in batches. Instead of deciding, writing and posting each day, sit down and do it all in an hour or two. The more you do this, the easier it becomes and the less time it takes. Read more about the Productivity Power Hour here.

9. TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF “WHAT SHOULD I POST?”

So picture this:

When you sit down to schedule your week of posts, or write your email newsletters, or make updates to your website, you have a full, cohesive collection of branded photos to choose from. No pulling ideas out of thin air that you must then plan, create and edit. No wracking your brain trying to strategize all the pieces to the puzzle.

You’ll have variety of interesting and storydriven images that have been planned out to tell your story. This will inspire your captions, blog, or email content to correspond easily with your photos.

Depending on the nature of your business, a branding photography session could provide you with anywhere from one to three to six months to a year’s worth of content, depending on how you plan, schedule and reuse evergreen content over time.

Tip: Remember, every person in your online audience won’t see every single post you make. This allows you to cycle through and reuse your best images and captions, saving you even more time in the future.

8. SIMPLIFY YOUR SCHEDULE

Chances are, social media isn’t your specialty. There are many facets to running a business. And in order to grow and make money, you need to be working on what you sell.

Did you know it can take 3-6 hours a day to work on marketing and grow an engaged audience if you don’t have a plan? Nobody has time for that!

And even if you hire someone and outsource your marketing, you’ll need to provide visual content for them to use.

So, whether you do it yourself or outsource, having a library of images to choose from saves hours of time each week trying to think up what to photograph, taking the photographs, choosing which ones to use, editing, and finally writing and posting.

Tip: Once you have your images to work with, schedule time to build out your posts for the week. Create a simple template for a social media calendar and keep track of which hashtags you’ll use, and your call to action. Want a free template? Boom. I just saved you a couple hours. :)

7. BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE

Do you have a clear picture of who you are speaking to and what you want to say when you post or send an email?

Do you have a strategy, or do you tend to post on a whim?

Having a branding session with a photographer will help you take a good look at your business, your story, and the message you want to convey. Working with a photographer who cares about and knows what they’re doing, they will take the time to get to know you and your business, and help you figure out your visual story.

And when you have images that truly and beautifully represent your business or brand, you will feel excited and empowered to share about your business, why you love what you do, how your business can serve your audience well, and create real engagement.

Tip: Never post “same day” without strategy. Giving yourself time to plan and strategize your images and captions, you can post with more confidence and certainty that your message and intent is clear.

6. GROW YOUR BUSINESS COMMUNITY AND EXTEND YOUR REACH

Collaborative sessions with other small business owners and service providers can extend your reach, and create lasting connections, support, and community. Recognize areas where you can work together with other businesses on sessions (maybe a seasonal styled shoot or event).

The people you choose to surround yourself with as a small business owner, entrepreneur, artist, maker, or brand matters. No one knows better than the self-employed how impactful one person can be on your business. Now imagine you form a network of people you can work with, recommend, support and lift up.

By lifting others around you, you build a valuable community.

Tip: Make a point of direct messaging at least one fellow local business per week. Introduce yourself, give them some encouragement and love. You never know whose day you might make with a simple act of kindness and community!

5. STAND OUT AND RISE UP

We’ve seen it happening in many types of markets - you seem to be one of thousands of photographers, coaches, makers, bloggers. How can you compete?

You must elevate your brand to stand out among the crowd. You do this in a few ways: using your authentic voice, providing excellent stand-out service, and putting forth a brand that looks and (more importantly) feels next level.

The quality of your images will speak volumes, and consistency is key. When you have plenty of gorgeous, professional photos to choose from, you will stand out and first impressions can be the difference between growth and riding the struggle bus.

Tip: Create a visual branding board on Pinterest or in a program like Illustrator or Photoshop. Include images, graphics, typeface, your logo and 10 words or phrases that describe your brand. Use this as a guide and for inspiration for everything you post, share and send. Just starting out with branding your busienss? I’ve got you covered with a free personal branding worksheet.

4. TAKE YOUR BUSINESS SERIOUSLY

Do you get that random comment from friends or family that your job “must be so fun” and you don’t have to work hard, or that “it’s nice you can make money on one of your hobbies.” These comments sting, but the hard truth is, to be seen as a business, you need to conduct yourself as a business. This includes (but is not limited to) having a clear brand voice and image. This will differentiate you from “just another mom with a camera and a Facebook page” or someone making some extra cash on Etsy.

Having a clear story to tell through your images and posts will set you apart from sharing whatever random pictures you take on your phone on any given day.

Tip: Use an app like Planoly, Plann or Mosaico to plan and schedule your Instagram posts. You can move your images around to whatever arrangement you like best, write your captions (or copy and paste them from your social media calendar), add your hashtags of choice and post each day according to your schedule.

3. REACH THE RIGHT CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS

It’s the law of attraction, friend!

We’ve all done the Instagram scroll, right? What makes you stop and double tap a post, or take a minute to read the caption? First and foremost, it’s interesting images that appeal to you. The content, the quality, maybe you recognize the brand quickly and easily for the person, the color story and style.

No one wants to be standing in the middle of crowded Times Square shouting to the masses “LOOK AT ME!” It’s exhausting and pointless. Maybe you’ll get a little extra attention. But before you know it, those people have moved on with the crowd.

You don’t want to be the shiny object of the moment.

But what if you set up shop on a specific corner and show up every day where you know your audience is hanging out, be there consistently, speaking directly to your target audience. They want to stay and chat and hear what you have to say. They come back again and again, bringing friends who they think will like what you have to say.

By knowing who you want to reach, your message is clear, and you establish trust through consistency. Your images reflect your specific business and brand, and your words amplify your message.

Tip: Get to know your “Target Audience” avatar. Give them a name. Specify as much as you can about them so that when you are speaking to them through captions, emails or blog posts, your are speaking to them like you would your friend. You know them that well.

2. GROWTH TAKES TIME AND WORK

I’m just going to say this. You’re probably not going to go viral. And you’re not going to get rich overnight. Growth takes hard work and consistency. For many it takes years. But you can take upward steps each day, and a year from now, look back at how far you’ve come.

Maybe professional photography seems out of reach, or you keep thinking “I’ll do it in a few months, maybe when I’m a little bit bigger and more established.”

What if you invest in your business now and start growing tomorrow, with a professional “starter pack” of images to work with?

You can keep dreaming and planning, or you can decide and act.

Tip: No matter where you are in your business, write down three actionable steps you can take today, this week, or this month, to propel your business forward. Then do them.

1. YOU ARE WORTHY OF SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS

That last one is important. We get caught up in being busy and “the hustle”, and many days forget why we started in the first place. For me, it was to be able to provide for my family and be there for them when they need me. But that doesn’t work if I’m working around the clock, tied to my phone or laptop.

Great photography is not just for big established businesses. It’s not a privilege or luxury. It’s not for the businesses and brands that we admire and maybe aspire to. It is a business tool that will help you grow, just like the right software, apps, skills and equipment. It’s easy to look at someone else’s photography and think “I’m just not there yet, maybe I will be someday. Probably not, but maybe.”

That’s so not true! Let me tell you a little story.

For a long time, I got caught in the mindset that running a small business is just a long, hard journey and maybe I’ll always be poor. I would tell my friends and I started believing that I was just always going to be on the struggle bus. Someone would always have a nicer camera, better lighting equipment, a gorgeous studio and all the right things to say. I didn’t believe that I could be that person. I accepted that I’d be a permanent passenger on the struggle bus.

That’s not a great mindset to have.

You have to start believing that you deserve and will achieve great things in life.

You deserve to be happy, to have a successful business, to make changes in the world, have that family life, travel wherever you want and eat amazing food.

You. Can. Have. It.

But it does take work.

And confession time? I am still working on getting there. That’s the beauty of life. We’re all in different places and want different things. There are still many who have nicer equipment and gorgeous studios and all the right words. But I no longer think that I’ll stay stuck where I am. I’m working towards more and better.

What has your mindset been like lately? Do you believe you can have the life you want? How can you get off the struggle bus and grow your business, reduce your stress and feel happier and fulfilled?

Tip: Write down a set of affirmations for yourself, no matter where you are in business. Revisit it monthly and write new ones to help work through whatever bumps, snags or turns you are facing at the moment.

With 13 years of experience working as a photographer and graphics specialist, it has been my goal to grow a business that I can be proud of, support my family, and work with other small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to do the same - but don’t have the time, knowledge or tools to make these vital connections.

I want to hear from you. Where are you at in your business journey? What are you stuck on? What do you love about your work, and what do you think is just the worst?

Whether it’s one thing or ALL THE THINGS, let’s help each other on our path to success. We all have so much to offer!

For a weekly dose of creative juice and inspiration, listen in on the Creative Happy Life podcast!

Shannon Sorensen is a Connecticut-based small business and branding photographer. Personal branding photography for small business and entrepreneurs focuses on showing the heart behind the business, compelling stories to help your audience get to know you and your business better, and turn fans into paying clients! Learn more about personal and business branding photography.

Book your branding session with Shannon!

Related blog posts: Twelve Months of Personal Branding Photoshoot Ideas to Grow Your Business, The What Why and How of Personal Branding. What is Personal Branding Photography

What is Personal Branding Photography?

“What is personal branding?”

You’ve probably heard “personal branding” popping up more and more in conversations among small businesses and entrepreneurs. Or maybe this is the first time you’re hearing about it! Either way, I am here to help you learn and understand what it’s all about in relation to photography.

Personal branding photography, or “PBP” as we call it in the photography world, has always been around as a style of branding and marketing, but it is certainly gaining popularity in the world of small business and online marketing! In short, it is photography that tell your story, that you use to market and grow your business.

“But isn’t it just headshots and lifestyle portraits?”

It’s actually so much more!

Personal branding photography is about storytelling and creating connection with your clients and audience. By creating images that showcase not only what you look like, but who you are, infused with personality, action and purpose, you can easily and professionally tell your story. The images give your audience an intimate look at the life, the work, and the person behind the business. Paired with copywriting that is specific to your brand voice, you engage your audience to not only pay attention, but to care about you, and want to support your business as it grows!

And personal branding photography is not just about photos of you. A solid PBP collection will include a variety of marketing images for you to use. To get the most bang for your buck, you should work with a photographer who gets to know your business’ needs AND knows how to shoot this variety of images.

Here’s an example of a set of images for a 2-hour personal brand session. Kyndra’s Kitchen is an at-home prepared food service based in Kingston, Massachusetts. Kyndra often collaborates with her husband on meal preparation. She wanted to photograph several pieces of her business:

  • her kitchen where she cooks

  • what a typical day looks like while she works on order processing and meal planning

  • what deliveries and her branded bags look like

  • cooking together and sharing a meal with her husband to show one of the many benefits of her service

  • her family, including their doodle, Nixon

  • and behind the scenes of cooking, photographing and packaging her meals

Depending on your business needs and time of year, a personal branding session might include:

  • WHO ARE YOU - The face and the heart behind your business, images of you at work, at home, with your family, working on location or at your office, studio or shop, giving both a bigger picture and distinct branded details of what your life looks like as a business owner, and why you are passionate about what you do.

  • WHERE DO YOU WORK - people love to see where you spend your days and how you get work done. Whether it’s a studio, a shop, an office, a coworking space, or a desk tucked in the back corner of your closet (a “cloffice”), you are further painting the picture of how and where you spend your days. People want to see your stuff. Trust me.

  • WHO DO YOU WORK WITH - Do you have a support team or partner? Do you work solo at home? Are your kids running circles around you while you write your blog? Does your partner or best friend help you out? Who are the people you most closely surround yourself with? They are part of your story.

  • WHO DO YOU SERVE - The most important part of branding is not to speak to everyone, but to speak to your audience. Create a clear picture of who you serve by showing them in your images, working with clients, greeting customers, gathering at networking events and meetups, and addressing your audience directly through your writing.

  • HOW DO YOU SERVE - Do you create a product or provide a service? Take your audience through the process with you. Show the steps you take in brainstorming, organizing ideas, sketching, designing, editing, and making. How do you package your product? How do you choose your packaging to make it special and your own? How do you make your customers feel special and well taken care of? The same goes for providing a service. How do you make your clients feel and what are you helping them achieve or accomplish?

  • WHAT DO YOU LOOK LIKE IN ACTION - This ties into other points above. What does a typical workday look like for you? Where do you make or build? What do you wear? Do you mostly work in the same space or do you work on location? Take note of all the various things you do to run your business, and what that looks like to your audience if you were to zoom out a bit. If you had an audience watching you, what would they see?

  • TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT - What do you use daily to run your business? Is your work mostly on your phone or laptop? Do you work with power tools or photo equipment? What do you use to organize your business, like a planner or calendar system? Do you work at a gym or studio? What physical elements do you need to get work done? And which ones are your favorites?

  • STYLED/DISPLAYED PRODUCTS - If you are a product based business, you want to show what you make! This can be done several ways. You may be a home-based maker and style your photos for your Etsy shop or e-commerce site. You may run a brick and mortar shop and have displays and styled areas that showcase the product and environment.

  • ROUTINES AND RITUALS - Consider sharing your morning or evening rituals. How you prepare for the day ahead, or unwind when the workday is over. What are some things that are important to you to stay grounded and happy? Some ideas may be journaling, prayer or meditation, working out, preparing a meal or coffee, skin or body care routine, favorite books or music you’re currently enjoying.

  • A GLIMPSE AT FAMILY OR HOME LIFE - You get to choose what elements of your life you share as part of your personal brand story. You might include occasional family updates, a glimpse at your home, where you rest or have your routines and rituals, a favorite space in your home or recent project. Find ways to tie these little pieces in as it relates to your brand. Maybe your lifestyle is part of your brand: where or what you eat, travel, hobbies or activities.

  • SEASONAL UPDATES - Even if you don’t live somewhere that experiences distinct seasons throughout the year, there are changes and holidays that occur that may affect your story. And not just nature, but seasons of your life may change, with a move, a promotion or recognition, or life event such as marriage, pregnancy, stages of parenthood, friendships, loss, and personal growth.

  • PRODUCT OR SERVICE LAUNCHES - A whole session may be dedicated to capturing a new product, service, course, podcast, book. So many possibilities!

  • BUSINESS GATHERINGS OR EVENTS - Networking events, conventions, retreats, meetups, coffee with a friend, coworking, launch event, book tours, celebrations, seasonal markets, holiday events. Again, lots of possibilities to share important happenings with you and your business throughout the year! You can look at the year ahead and what you already have scheduled, or book a la carte coverage as these events come up.

So, as you can see, there is a lot to personal branding photography. It’s not just a couple pretty pictures of yourself. It’s showing an in depth picture of your business in whatever way that you want to share it.

Another important thing to consider is growing a close relationship with your branding photographer, so they can help you maximize your sessions and create the best assortment of personal branding images for you to choose from. As you work together over time, they will be more and more in tune to what you need for your specific business!

What questions do you have about personal branding photography? Have you had a PBP session yet? Do you know how to find a PBP photographer who is local to you?

Shannon Sorensen is a Connecticut-based small business and branding photographer. Personal branding photography for small business and entrepreneurs focuses on showing the heart behind the business, compelling stories to help your audience get to know you and your business better, and turn fans into paying clients! Learn more about personal and business branding photography.

Book your branding session with Shannon!

Related blog posts: Twelve Months of Personal Branding Photoshoot Ideas to Grow Your Business, The What Why and How of Personal Branding

Twelve Months of Personal Branding Photoshoot Ideas to Grow Your Business

Not sure if monthly branding sessions are right for you and your business? After all, how many pictures can you really use each month? That all depends on your business and how you market your brand!

Here are twelve ways (one for each month of the year!) to use monthly branding sessions to grow your business!

  1. CHANGING SEASONS - Unless you’re traveling, it can be a bit odd to see a warm weather photo when your audience knows you should have some snow on the ground! Seasons affect your wardrobe, your environment, and maybe your product offerings! If your brand is more focused on personal topics like food, skin care, fashion or family, the seasons will be a major factor in dictating your content.

  2. SEASONAL OR HOLIDAY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES - there are tons of promotional seasons per year, and if you are a product or service based business, you want to show off your newest offerings for back to school, fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, gifts, New Years, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Break, Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, summer, Fourth of July. If you’re a shop owner, you maybe also incorporate seasonal decor and displays into your sessions.

  3. NATIONAL DAY OF….Tacos? Margaritas? Ice Cream? Best friends? There’s a national day to celebrate almost every day of the year, and you can pick and choose what fits your branding that you want to celebrate and share with your audience! Remember - social media is for engagement, entertainment and fun! Your audience wants to see the things that you enjoy that they can relate to! If you’re an influencer, chances are a lot of your sponsored posts could revolve around this type of content! See below for quick links to all monthly national days, weeks and months of observance!

  4. EVENTS - Whether you’re attending, hosting, or planning, you can look at your year ahead and hand pick events that you want featured content for as it relates to food, fashion, decor, planning, seasons, new product launches, awards, and lifestyle.

  5. PROJECTS - Home renovation? Setting up shop? Featuring a seasonal menu? Creating a course or launching a big new product, service or collaboration? Keep your audience informed and excited as you go through the process and share your big reveal!

  6. YOU - This is what personal branding is all about, after all! Sharing your face, at work, out and about, doing your thing, attending events, your style. You should get a variety of shots to maximize your content and be able to use your photos for a number of marketing strategies. This means lifestyle shots, zoomed out and space to add text or info, close up details shots, a variety of poses and actions.

  7. YOUR SQUAD - Depending on your business or brand, you may incorporate family stories into your work. At least twice a year, you might consider a session with your partner, kids, pets, best friends, or team!

  8. YOUR WORKSPACE OR SHOP - Consider a session that showcases your workspace, shop, studio or home. Wide shots, details and you working within the space. These are images you can use throughout the year! Add seasonal shots as you go, and schedule another workspace shoot if you do a major renovation or update.

  9. STYLE - As a style blogger, influencer or small business, you may plan around events or new seasonal wardrobes, gift guides, or travel to feature your personal style! You may have sponsored posts or your tried and true favorite items that you want to incorporate or make the focus of a session.

  10. BRANDED DETAILS - These might be considered “filler” images, but things that showcase more of your brand can help add variety to your content. These might be considered your own personal stock photos. Things like your desk, tools and equipment, letterboards with favorite quotes or sayings, flatlays with an assortment of items. There are so many possibilities! You can also think of your environment, like shots around town or your city, storefronts, and places that fit your story. This may be a harbor of sailboats, a busy city street, your favorite park bench or outdoor seating area at a coffee shop. If your home is full of plants or decor, you may do a styled shoot featuring these kinds of details.

  11. WORK LIFE - Action shots, working with clients, having meetings, greeting customers. Whatever work looks like for you, there are a lot of ideas and options to share with your audience!

  12. MILESTONES AND CELEBRATIONS - Did you hit your first 100, 1,000 or 10,000 followers? Did your business just turn 1, 5 or 10? Did you receive an award or recognition? Celebrate your wins and share them! Order yourself a cake, pop some champagne, and book a shoot!

These are just a few ideas, but even within these categories, there are so many possibilities!

Not sure where to start? I created a 30-day content planning template to get you started!

“but wait- there’s more!” she said.

keep scrolling for daily, weekly and monthly celebration and observance quick links!

National Days, Weeks and Months to Celebrate

Just for fun, here are ideas for each month of the year, specific to the calendar year, as well as quick links to all those daily, weekly and monthly national celebrations and observances:

Plan for the Year Ahead

I hope these ideas inspire you to look at your calendar and start brainstorming for the year ahead! As it is in business, the days can pass quickly. And when you create a clear plan for your marketing and content, weeks or months in advance, you’ll save yourself time and frustration because you’ll already know what’s in your calendar!

grab a free 30-day content planning template

Shannon Sorensen is a Connecticut-based small business and branding photographer. Personal branding photography for small business and entrepreneurs focuses on showing the heart behind the business, compelling stories to help your audience get to know you and your business better, and turn fans into paying clients! Learn more about personal and business branding photography.

Book your branding session with Shannon!