Welcome back. Today we're talking about

branding. And do you know who this is?

We've got Emily Linda Miller here. So

we're talking about how important

branding is for small business. Okay, so

let's just jump right in with that

question. I mean how important is

branding for small business? -Well, to me

when you say branding, you can be

referencing different things. You could

be talking about your visual brand. Which

is what I think most people mean when

they say branding. But in general, the

word brand, your brand is everybody's

perception of you as a business. And if

you're a small business owner, that's...

That is your business. -Okay, so yeah. So

we're not just talking about then your

logo. -Right, right. But we're talking about

people's perception of you. -Yeah. So, you

know, I definitely want to get into all

these different kind of elements

especially for a small business owner

who's their brand, right? You are your

brand in certain businesses. But for this

video, I wanted to be really, really clear

on visual brand. Creating a visual brand

concept that's something that you can

take then to your team. Basically

the people who are making your visuals

for you. Whether it's your website, your

graphic designer or, you know, even your

wardrobe consultant. -Mm-hmm. Those are you

seeing the improvement to my brand will

recognize and improvement to my

photography, to my website, things Emily

hears is responsible for that.

Well, let's let's first address why is

having a powerful visual brand so

important? -You know people are going to

be making a first impression judgment

about you whether you've given it any

thought or not. And so getting some

clarity on how you want to come across.

Not just because you're wanting to fake

something. It's not that at all. It's more

that you're wanting to get to the core

values that you have and want to come

through in your business and that

you can give people an idea of what to

expect when they work with you. What the

experience would be like. -Okay, so to be a

contrarian what if I think, "Well, I

shouldn't want to... I shouldn't need to

care what other people think." -I literally

have no answer to that because you're in

business.

So, by default not... You know, I think it's

kind of funny when people say they're

going to quit their job, fire their boss.

When you're a business owner, your

clients are all your bosses. So you end

up having a lot of bosses in your life.

And so, what they think and how you

perform for them really really matters.

-Yeah. It matters. It matters 100%

-And if you're doing it right,

your brand should give them an idea of

who you are and what it's going to be

like to work with you before they even

hire you. Which is good for you because

then it helps you to be able to deliver

exactly what they're expecting. -Well, I

want to throw another twist in this

because I've experienced as I've

increased the quality of my photos of

increased my brand through wardrobe,

it actually has given me a boost of

confidence. Just earlier this week, I was in a

meeting in Austin where there was a lot

of very, very wealthy influencers. You

know making millions of dollars a year.

And I wasn't even expecting to go to

this meeting. I was just kind of invited

and I was wearing the right attire.

And I was having conversations and

several of them want to hire me. And it's

like, "I'm so glad that I wasn't just... I

don't know. dressed like I used to dress."

-Well, so what's interesting about that is

yes, definitely self-confidence makes you

show up in a bigger grander way. But also

the way that you dress or the way that

you present yourself, it tells people, it

gives them clues about your tastes. And

so, if you've got a high level of taste,

then they know that your work is

probably going to reflect that as well.

Without even necessarily having to see

your work first. And obviously this

applies you know, if somebody's first you

know, impression of you is through your

website. You want your website to reflect

that. If somebody's first impression of

you is how you're dressed just seeing

you across the room, you want that to

riff like that. And if your first

impression is how you communicate to

people when you're standing in the front

of that room and introducing yourself,

then the where... Even the words that you

speak, the mannerisms that you have, the

the way that you show up as maybe really

friendly and inviting and warm versus some businesses

makes more sense to show up as

commanding and strong and powerful and

very capable. So, it kind of depends on,

you know, your needs in your own brand. So,

I thought keeps coming on my mind about

how you and I we got working together.

Almost 3 years ago, I saw a friend

who a good friend of mine. She had a new

profile photo that she posted on

Facebook. And I've seen lots of

different headshots of her. She's an

amazing woman but I saw this photo and I

thought that... I thought, "That

is Anne? Who took this photo?" And it was

obviously, it was Emily. And then I went

and I looked at your portfolio. And when...

I then, you know, made a decision right

there. "I'm going to work with Emily." Because

like when... And when I was ready to up my

brand when I was ready to step into a

just a stronger role to really help

people the way that I'm good at,

obviously, went to Emily to up my

photography. I mean if there's a chance

of making an improvement on a

photography, why wouldn't you choose the

best? So, I want I want to switch gears

for a minute to talk about like how you

created your brand. -Okay, so kind of to go

back maybe 7 years, I was actually

working as a graphic designer in a

previous business that I had created. And

in my role as a graphic designer, I

wasn't... I wasn't trained in college. So, I

didn't have the training that that says

branding is you know giving a feeling

about who this business is. And so for me,

branding was purely visual. Okay? So, I

started my you know foundational

elements of building this business. My

portrait photography business on just

the purely visual aspect of branding. And

I.. Looking back have thought about it and

part of me wants to say that was maybe a

little frivolous or you know, I didn't

have to be as complicated as I made it.

But at the same time, I really loved

that that was the first step because it

gave me a chance to get clarity on how I

wanted my brand to look first. And then I

switched gears into how I wanted, you

my, brand, my persona to feel and how I

wanted people to feel when they worked

with me. And those conversations kind of

built on the visual foundation. -Okay. Because there's a difference there.

If you focus all about the look,

how do you want something to look versus

the feeling how do you want them to

feel, it might completely change

the look. -In my case, what... That actually

definitely happened. So, what I did when I

was trying to curate the idea of what my

brand looked like is I went on Pinterest

and I just pinned all of the different... I

just did searches for a branding or web

design or things like that and I pinned

everything that I thought was really

beautiful or really cool. And what I

found is that there was this enormous

collection of very not consistent

looking content. And so then I went

through and said, "Okay, what are the

keywords (Visually) that are really

important for my brand?" And you know, in

my case, I photographed mainly women. And

my images have a specific style. Since

I'm a visual brand. I mean, what I do. That

kind of helped give me some starting

points. And so I started by asking myself,

you know, "What are my images like and

what are, you know, what are the kind of

images that I want to create for my

clients?" And remember at this point, I'm

brand new and so I don't have tons of

clients. And so I get to choose in this

moment. Who are the clients I want to

work with and how do I want to serve

them? Right? So for me, it was like I want

to be able to photograph really elegant,

timeless, glamorous, super feminine images. That are classic. And so that those

words kind of became my visual branding

like direction. So then after that, I took

those words and I said, "Alright Pinterest,

which of these pins that I put in this

brand board match those words?" In which

totally don't because I would find that

there would be some that were super

playful and trendy posts that definitely

didn't fit the bill for timeless. And so

those had to go. And then I also kind of

got a little more clarity on the color

schemes that I wanted. I wanted to be

really... Obviously I wanted it to be

classic and timeless.

And the kind of thing that that's not

all you're looking at. I didn't want it

to be color based. So I chose colors that

are in the images that I photograph. Like

skin tones and the colors of the

backgrounds that I use in black and

white and just keeping it really clean.

And so once I got clear on the colors

and the keywords then I was able to

curate down that Pinterest board to

something that was really, really defined.

-So, it's really cool. So that's a

lot of what I do myself and when I work on my clients is to find examples, to search on and find what you like. But it's so

important to follow the steps that

you've done as well. Really knowing the

words, how long how long was that process

of kind of choosing the words that

represent your brand? -Choosing words was

easy. Narrowing them down was the hard

part. So I started by just... I would come

up with several words and you know, it

would be like 50 or something, outrageous.

And what I even... Some words, I would go to

the thesaurus and add five that are all

kind of related to each other. And that

gave me a chance to say, "Do you know what?

This specific word has everything that I

want to communicate. And in this word

allows me to get rid of these many." You

know, all of these other words. So it was

kind of an exercise in clarity that

was the most valuable aspect of it was

probably the opportunity that it gave me

to really be... To get that clarity. -So how

many words did you narrow it down to? -I

narrowed it down to 6 words. -Awesome.

-Yeah. -And how long have you had those 6

words? Since the beginning? -Since the

beginning and what's kind of interesting

is when I... I started with just those 6

words and then I started going to

networking events and I started to feel

a little confined by those words. Not

just networking events but also like

when I would be posting content on

social media. And I found that I really

wanted to post content that was

emotional and that would connect with

people and it was going to kind of give

people an insight into my heart and how

I wanted to hold space for them and

invite them to my studio. And I felt like

the words classic, timeless, elegant,

glamorous

kind of hold people at heart arm's

length. They're beautiful visual words

but they're not great for how I want

people to feel around my brand. So that's

why I ended up kind of cultivating

another list that was separate from my

visual list. So today, I was thinking, "This

video would be great to talk about the

visual list and that it would be awesome

to have another conversation about the

next level." -Alright so what you what

you mentioned there's pretty interesting.

And I... Grab that paper because what

she has here... She's got like different

visual brands. You've got my brand images

are and they're their words we've

mentioned timeless, luxurious, elegant

glamorous. Let's talk about this one here

though. The "I am." So you've got different

words that you're going to use in different

scenarios? Is that... Is that how I'm

understanding this? -Yeah. So essentially,

my visual brand is how it looks, okay?

That's also kind of the first impression

if you were looking at something I was

wearing or something from a distance.

That's maybe how you would see me. But at

the core of who I am... Like glamorous,

elegant, feminine, polish. Like those are

all things that I aspire to be and that I

dressed up as. But in reality, you know,

people aren't those things. Those are

people words. And so for me, you know, I

wanted more than anything to come across

as compassionate and inviting to people.

So that when they came into my space

that they would feel safe and feel seen

and heard and important. -So, there's

obviously a difference there. It would... It

would... Those words don't necessarily

represent your photography business

brand. Compassionate and inviting. So I

see what you're saying. -Yeah. And honestly,

the way that I photographed women, that's

my visual brand. You know, it kind of ties

together. Some women I photograph as... Most

women actually are very powerful and

engaged and deeply connected in their

images. And so that's part of my visual

brand absolutely. But then there would

also be images where people were super

dressed up and really glamorous and kind

of playing that fun dress-up game

and it's like that is my brand. And it

completely makes sense for that to be

kind of how I show up at events and

things like that. But at the same time, I

don't want it to be the kind of maybe

intimidating woman

whose cold and and a little scary to be

around. And I'm not that and so it didn't

make sense for me to play at that. So for

me, it was just kind of giving myself

these words. And they're directed to me.

So for me, it was... I wanted to be able to

come across as vulnerable and playful

and whimsical and sensual and inviting

and all of those other things that I

think are super important to be able to

have relationships especially with women.

Who are my main audience, my main client.

-This to me, words mean a lot to me. And I

have not at all gotten this specific. But

having a foundation, I think that's

something that I'm committing to right

now is I need to get more clear on my

words in different areas

because having clarity on the words that

then makes it seems like it's going to make

everything else easier. -Right. Well and

what's fun is it's interesting because I...

I was so nervous that I was going to be

showing up. I mean I was 25 when I

started this business. And I was so

nervous that I was going to be seen as

maybe too silly or too young if I had

those words. And so I was so focused on

words like committed to excellence and

successful and prepared and you know,

things like that that are certainly

important to my brand and to how I want

people to perceive me and as a business

woman. But not necessarily how I want

people to see me as myself. So, I wanted

to give myself words that were separated

out. This is how I show up in my business

and this is how I'll show up when I'm

serving you as my client. But this is how

I'm going to show up as your friend and

we're going to bond and this is part of

what I bring to the table. Because being

able to photograph somebody... I mean, you have to have a bond and a connection

with them. -Cool. So it's kind of a take

away for small business owners that are

wanting to create a brand. The message

here then is to come up with words. So if

people see you, they see your brand, they

see your website, they see photography.

What words you want to come to their

mind? Or what feelings you want them to

have? And then I guess another level is

okay, when they're interacting with you,

what experience you want them to have?

What words to find that experience? And

would you say that the words are the

starting point for creating a brand? -I

would say it it's the thought that goes

into

up with the words. And then for me a huge

aspect of these words were just

permission to show up as I already was

in a way that said, "This is okay.

This is okay in this context and this is

okay in this context." So... So it wasn't

necessarily about changing Who I am or

changing how I'm being perceived or

wanting to be perceived. It was more

about saying, "It's okay for you to be

perceived this way and in fact, here's

why it's good." -So, you'd find this episode

helpful, I know I did. But was also. Thanks

so much. If people want to find you, where

do they go? So, emilylondonportraits.com is my website. -We'll link it below.

-You can also find me on Instagram

emilylondonportraits. And on Facebook. -Okay. So

if you're watching this on YouTube and

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subscribe. If you're on LinkedIn then

follow. Because we're starting to post

all these videos on LinkedIn as well. So,

we'll see in the next episode.