Photographers on Brand

A while back, if you listened to any radio station in the DC area, you’d hear a catchy jingle with this slogan, “if you can’t we can!”

Pop quiz. What are they selling? I won’t tell you the name of the business.

Here’s the point. You can’t tell the name of the business, the product they offer, or the benefit they are promoting. It’s just word salad.

The best positioning slogans remind customers who you are and the benefit of using your service. The same works for photographers. Part of differentiating yourself from your competition is in your positioning statement.

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Photographers on Brand Live!

Next month starting a monthly free webinar program on personal branding for photographers. I will be teaching mini workshops, interviewing photographers who are doing personal branding well, and bringing on other experts to help you with different parts of your branding and marketing. And it will all be free.

I’ll be announcing that in the next few weeks, but if you want to be on the list to get notified when it goes live, just go to bhotographersonbrand.com/live.

Sarah never thought she was ready to go pro with her photography, and it seemed so obvious to me that she would be an amazing success. 

We worked together in a communications department, and Sarah provided photography and video support for us. She was amazing and people from all over the city would specifically request her for their projects. And despite her success, she never felt confident enough to go out on her own.

I get it. Sometimes it is hard to see these things when you are so close to them.

When I taught photography, many amazingly talented photographers would timidly ask me how they would know when they were ready to go pro.

Of course, the answer is largely subjective, but there are some general guidelines you can keep in mind. Here are three questions that might provide you clues.

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I love naming things — business, products, campaigns. I get a thrill out of coming up with a name that is clever and communicates the value proposition. 

But when I decided to do a personal branding podcast, finding a name I liked stumped me. 

I went back and forth. Should I use my own name or come up with something more descriptive. I couldn’t find a descriptive name I liked, so I went with my own name. 

Have you ever wondered if there was any benefit or drawback to using your personal name as your brand?

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An update on the narrowing focus of this podcast and my other content.

I'm going to now start making content specifically for photographers. 

Now, here's why that helps you as a photographer, because I have the opportunity now to be a lot more specific in the problems I address. 

The cool thing is that everything I've done so far applies to photography and applies to photographers. And so now, in addition to that, we'll get to be more photographer specific. And when I say photographers, I'm going to be talking to professional photographers because I think you will be helped most by a personal branding approach.

Nothing else changes. I'll continue focusing on personal branding with all my lessons and tips, but I will give examples that are specific to professional photographers. 

So that's the update. It's more of a narrowing. Dare I use of photography frame of reference and say a narrowing of the aperture.

Join me here for more personal branding for professional photographers.

You have completed your website or Instagram complete with your best, award-winning images and sent it out to the world to crickets. Or maybe you got lots of likes and hearts but no leads.

Attaboys and attagirls are cool when people are admiring your images, but you got into this business to serve customers, to help others create memories, and to make a profit.

What’s missing from your website to help visitors make the transition from admirers to buyers? In this episode, I’ll take you through the key steps every website must have to go from a fancy gallery to a sales machine.

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Can your website pass the 10-second test? Download the 10-Second Website Checklist and find out!

“The right tool for the right job!” That’s what my Dad always counseled when he roped me into doing a carpentry project with him. The right tool can make a job so much easier. The wrong tool and you could be struggling.

I’ve found the same thing works for the tools I use to build my personal branding business. The wrong tool usually requires lots of extra steps to do basic tasks, looks unprofessional to your customers, and doesn’t work well with the other apps in your workflow. The right tool simplifies tasks, is easy to set up, and makes it easier to run your personal branding business.

I am in the process of migrating my business over to the Kajabi platform, and I can’t help but think that this is the perfect software to run your personal branding business. I’ll tell you what I mean in this episode.

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Synopsis

Here’s how Kajabi works for personal branding.

Creating content that helps you define who you are and provide value? 

• Kajabi can create your website, Blog & Podcast.

Beginning a relationship with the ones who choose to follow and interact with you?

• Kajabi can create landing pages.

Use email to nurture the relationship and build an interest in your products?

• Kajabi can create your email campaigns.

Creating an offer to provide your product or service that solves a problem for your customer?

• Kajabi allows you to create offers separately from the products.

Need to automate & scale the process?

• Kajabi creates automation pipelines — a series of automated tasks to build complex automations with one click.

Here are the reasons this works so much better than anything else.

• All the products work together seamlessly. In the past, I was always having to duct tape on one piece of the puzzle that didn’t quite integrate properly.
• Simple to set up and use. It uses the drag and drop interface that I prefer. It also has one-click pipelines to automate what should be complex tasks.
• The if/then automation is just that simple.
• It’s easy to tailor the site design to your taste.
• It provides a very professional presentation to your customers.
• They don’t take any of your profits.

When you strip down all the roles you would need any software to play in creating your personal brand, Kajabi is by far the best option to make that happen.

Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself!

Test drive Kajabi for 30 days to launch your personal branding business. Kajabi normally gives 14 days free to try their software. Use the link below to extend that time to 30 days.

Test Drive Kajabi for 30 Days!

Note: This is an affiliate link. If you use it, you won’t pay any more for Kajabi, but I will receive a small compensation for your membership. 

If you sign up with my link, send me an email, and I will coach you during the 30 days to create your first product and offer it for sale on Kajabi. I want to try and help you use your business to pay for the Kajabi membership.

I had seen one too many — a beautiful photograph, so well executed, marred by a watermark that distracted from it. So back when I was teaching photography, I went on the record. 

I told my tribe that I thought a  beautiful photograph with a watermark on it was like buying a mansion and putting a pink flamingo on the front lawn. We could admire the beauty of the house, but we would always be distracted by the pink flamingo. Not everyone agreed with me. It didn’t matter. I was sharing my point of view.

Your point of view can be an effective way of differentiating yourself in a crowded marketplace.

This is the third installment in a three-part series that shares three things that you can use to differentiate yourself from everyone else.

1. First, we talked about your values.
2. Next we talked about your stories.
3. And finally, today we will talk about your point of view.

With these three approaches, you will be on your way to differentiating yourself and your personal brand in a way that no one can effectively copy. 

POV - the way your brand views the world and looks at specific situations. A well developed point of view gives your business personality, authenticity, and individuality. When customers relate to your point of view, they are more likely to be loyal to your brand.

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Are you making these 5 mistakes with your personal brand? Take the challenge and find out!

It started at a dinner party where I didn’t know anyone and my camera opened the door to my future calling. Remember I said that everyone needs a Why story? I’ll tell you three of mine today.

I am like a lot of people in that I pay attention to when I get confirmation on a big decision in several ways. Three different confirmations are enough for me to sit up and pay attention. This is what happened to me back in 2010 when I finally decided to start a business.

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Back in 1976, two college dropouts — both named Steve, set out to make computers that were small enough for people to use in their offices and homes. 

They thought computers should be more user-friendly, so the two set out to create a computer from their garage. The computer was instantly popular and the company now sells in the billions. If you guessed Apple Inc, you are right. And that story of theirs has been swirling around for decades.

If you want to be remembered. If you want to be the go-to service for your tribe. If you want people to spread your name, you have to tell your story. With all other things being equal, a compelling story can tip the scales between you and a similar option.

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This week, I was all set to buy some gear from Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team, and I’m not a fan of Cleveland. To be honest, I barely even watch baseball. But I thought about plucking out my credit card and ordering a Cleveland jersey.

Why? Cleveland had just made a statement by changing the name of their mascot from the Indians to the Guardians. I wanted to make a statement by supporting that decision. In fact, I went on to make a statement on my Facebook page praising their decision.

“Congrats to Cleveland for changing the name and mascot of their MLB team. It's long overdue and good on them for doing it. Cleveland rocks!

It's shameful that some teams still carry mascots of Native American human beings.” 

When you have many different creatives offering the same product, how do you differentiate yourself? One way would be to lead with your values.

Sharing your opinions and values on issues you believe in and care deeply about can help you cut through the clutter and speak to buyers whose values align with yours.

Here are three ways that you can lead with your values for your personal brand.