It’s a dark day. Wouldn’t you rather be down on the beach?
I can take you there!
What does your personal branding photography look like?
How far you go towards ‘personal’ is most definitely your call.
If you are a CEO of a large company, would you show up in surfing shots? Probably not.
You might, though, depending on IF you wanted to push your own brand identity and core values of your business in this way?
Alternatively you could concentrate on the identity of your team in the board room?
Or maybe you could just do BOTH?
Either way personal branding photography can work for your business. Personal brand photos bring your target clients closer in if they share your personal vision. We just have to to find your angle and parts of ‘you’ that you feel comfortable sharing online. This could be cooking, walking, beach life, running, anything.. and /or surfing.
So let’s say it's Monday, a rainy Monday, in the middle of winter, maybe it’s a grim-nothing-day in December or January or even an early-dark-flat-February morning?
Inspirational personal branding images use emotion to capture and raise the spirits of your clients. They connect in a far richer way.. because you made people feel happy!
A branding photo to make you smile. If I have made you smile, we have connected, if even just a little. If you have looked at my photograph and seen me and listened to my blog, that’s another dimension.
So how do I use something to really connect you visually in the darkest part of the year?
I consider a visual that’s aspirational and suits your mood and tone right now and in this moment, I take you right down onto the beach with me!
After Christmas what do we crave in those darkest and bleakest of hours? We crave sun and holiday and planning a year ahead in better weather. Our mood post Christmas is most definitely ‘holidays’ in the mainstream. So just imagine that you have ‘beach branding shots’ in your personal branding portfolio? Images that were purposely made as part of your personal branding during the summertime?
Now feels like the WRONG time to use them but now is exactly the RIGHT time.
Now we DISRUPT! You better stand out by using something no-one else is at this time of year.
You tap right into that emotion of longing for the sun and escapism by posting a beach shot. When everyone else, business wise, is blogging about New Year strategy, you can cut through the mediocre middle line with a blog about spirit and life and relate it to content surrounding your business and personal brand message.
And so we, Sophie & I, conclude, down on the beach, in the late summer of 2023. It’s my favourite UK beach by pure chance. (Crantock, just outside of Newquay). At sunset.... with digital manager Sophie Hutchings.. I met Sophie via a networking event at which I was speaking. She was totally sold on working her own personal branding photography online . She just wanted someone to understand her and visualise her without taking away her power.
I was feeling exhausted. .
We had shot continually for 5 hours, by this point, to get here and down on the beach at sunset.
Our final destination together and shoot point.
We headed over the dunes, me puffing, my heavy camera bag on my shoulder and out into the sun..
It had been a blistering hot day. 28 degrees of extreme heat but the sun was now starting to set..
Sophie was tired but her determination ran strong.
We pushed hard together for the last and final hour of amazing capture in an iconic place and space that is so relevant to her personal brand..
At sunset...shared by a handful of surfers, dog walkers and beachcombers....
In other words, we had worked the main agenda and commercial shoot completed. The last hour was scheduled for something lighter, to chill and relax to gain these awesome personal brand images for ‘hunker down gloomy winter days’ when Sophie really wanted to capture your emotion and spin her vision.
Sophie Hutchings is an ONLINE BUSINESS MANAGER. Helping heart-led SME online businesses with content marketing strategies, organisation of online memberships and project managing rather amazing retreats.Beach shots help her connect clients to her vision, to sell retreats and digital campaigns.
These shots work because Sophie lives close to this beach. It is her natural habitat and where she runs her business. Surfing is a big part of her personal brand and free time. Any business leader with a coastal office , a life coach or you just love an active beach life and intend to blog about it. These shots are for you; will work for you!
Within her image bank Sophie holds, business shots, meeting shots, laptop, coffee houses, places where she will blog and run campaigns as well as personal brand shots and surf girl narratives… all in one day shoot.
